Where We End Up
by evans516
Summary: A spin off of my story "How Did We Get Here" Steve continues to juggle work and family. His wife and kids mean everything to him and he would do anything for them. Sometimes though, his work with Five-0 seems much easier than dealing with teenagers.
1. Gray Hair

**so, this is my new H50 story which is a spin off of my story 'How Did We Get Here?' in this story the kids are all older and steve is still with five-0. hope you like this, thanks for reading! :)**

_Gray Hair_

_2023_

Summer was coming to a close. Jack had just turned thirteen and was getting ready to start the eighth grade. That afternoon, he was at practice for the middle school football team that played on Saturdays afternoons; the season started in a few weeks. Julia was upstairs packing the remainder of her things. She was twenty and was getting ready to move into an apartment near campus with Grace; they would both be juniors in college. While Julia was an architecture major, Grace majored in education. Lucy was getting ready to start her senior year of high school, being seventeen years old now and a cheerleader like her mother. She was at an SAT prep course, since she would be applying to colleges soon.

Alexia arrived home from work that Saturday afternoon to a quiet house; she was still in the ER just as Steve was still with Five-0. It was the weekend before school started for everyone. Julia had gone to move a few boxes with her dad, Grace, and Danny. Lucy was still at her class and Jack was still at practice. With all the kids home for the summer, a peaceful house was rare. Even when Julia was at school, things still weren't peaceful with Jack and Lucy; plus, with Julia being so close to home, she came home a lot of weekends. With the house being so quiet, Alexia jumped when the front door swung open, then slammed shut.

"Hey mom!" Jack called, running up the stairs in his sweaty practice clothes, having been dropped off by a friend's parents. Since he had become a teenager, he had hit a massive growth spurt. He had passed his mother in height and was quickly gaining on his father. Being thirteen, he was still fairly wiry though as he hadn't filled out yet.

"Hi honey," Alexia called, sorting through the mail at the couch as she let her hair out of her pony tail. When it was pulled up, it was easier to see the streaks of gray that were running through it now; she would be forty-eight soon and Steve had just turned.

"Bye mom!" Jack said, running back down the steps and heading for the door.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Alexia said, making him stop in his tracks. She looked over her teenage son, his tall frame, his hair short like his dad's. "Where are you going?"

"Biking," Jack answered. He was wearing his sneakers, gym shorts, and a shirt with the sleeves torn off.

"Who are you going with?"

"Trevor and Mike."

"When will you be back?"

"Dinner."

"Ok," Alexia nodded and Jack opened the door to leave. "Are you forgetting something?" Jack shut the door, going over to kiss his mother on the cheek. "Thank you."

"Love you mom."

"You too honey," she said as he left. While the girls seemed to cause Steve the most grief, between sneaking out and having boyfriends, Jack was the one giving Alexia gray hair. Soon after Jack left, Lucy returned home from her SAT practice. She was dressed in cut off shorts and a pink top, her hair piled up on her head. She tossed her keys on the small table by the door and Alexia could see she was frustrated.

"How was it?" Alexia asked as Lucy took a seat next to her.

"Math sucks mom," Lucy complained. Out of the three kids, she was the one that looked the most like her mother, having the lightest hair and bright blue eyes. Both girls shared their mother's small, slim frame and were about the same height, though Julia was the tallest by a little. "Could Julesy just take it for me?" She still used her childhood nickname for her older sister.

"You'll be fine," Alexia promised her. "Besides, with the major you want, they'll look mostly at your reading and writing scores."

Lucy wasn't sure where she wanted to go to school yet, but she did know that she wanted to be a journalism major. Unlike her sister though, she knew she didn't want to stay on the island and wanted to go to the mainland for school. Alexia knew that, but Steve didn't yet. With as protective as Steve was, they knew that he wouldn't be happy about one of his girls leaving the island.

"Hi girls," Steve said, coming into the house with a grocery bag, followed by Danny who also had one.

"Hey daddy."

"Hi babe," Alexia said, turning her head to the door. "Hey Danny."

"Hey Lex," Danny nodded at her. "Got all the stuff for the barbecue tonight." He followed Steve to set the bags in the kitchen, before both of them returned to the living room. "Emily said she would try to get here, she got stuck at the hotel though." Danny and Emily had stayed together; they hadn't gotten married, but they had moved in together.

"Are Julia and Grace coming?" she asked.

"Yeah," Steve nodded. The college students still didn't have much food in their new apartment and would never turn down food from home. "And, before you ask, I remembered Julia's veggie burgers." He leaned his forearms against the back of the chair, looking over to Lucy. "What do you want tonight sweetheart, hot dog or hamburger?"

"I don't think I'm staying for dinner," Lucy said, getting up from the couch. "I have plans tonight."

"With who?" Steve asked as she went upstairs.

"People," Lucy answered ominously, heading up to her room. She didn't want to tell her dad she had a date that night or he would question her like crazy about it.

"Oh come on kid," Danny joked, calling upstairs. "You're gonna give your dad a stroke."

Danny had a hard enough time raising one teenage girl, he couldn't imagine how Steve did it with two and a teenage boy on top of that. While it was never funny when Grace pulled certain stunts on Danny, he always found it amusing when Steve's daughters ran circles around him.

"Just let her alone," Alexia encouraged, getting up from the couch. "She had a hard day at her class." Julia was their naturally brainy child, she never had to try much at school to succeed. Lucy was smart, but she had to work twice as hard as her sister did and it could really frustrate her.

"She's a good girl," Alexia reminded him.

"I know she is," Steve agreed. "The rest of the world though, not so good."

* * *

Jack came home from biking with his friends, going upstairs to shower before dinner. Steve and Danny had started grilling out on the deck, coming in and out of the house. Lucy was upstairs, getting ready for her date. Alexia was sitting at the table outside, watching Danny and Steve do all the cooking while she relaxed. The food was done, but it had started raining so they moved everything inside.

Smelling food, their growing teenage son came running down the stairs to meet them at the table. Julia and Grace weren't there yet, but had texted to say that they would be there soon. Just then, there was a knock at the door and Steve got up to answer it, though everyone could see the door from the table anyway.

Standing on the other side of the door was Sam, a kid that had grown up down the street from them. He was the same year in school as Julia, both of them being friends since middle school. He was a taller kid, with short black hair and dark brown eyes. Steve hadn't really liked any of the boys that Julia had dated and he always kind of hoped she would go out with Sam. After all, he had seen this kid grow up and he knew that he was a good guy. He was at the University of Hawaii too, majoring in marine biology.

"Oh hey Sam," Steve said. "Julia's not here, but she's on her way if you wanna come in for dinner." Sam seemed a little surprised.

"Oh no," Sam shook his head, laughing a little as there must have been some confusion. "I'm here to pick up Lucy sir, for our date?" Steve laughed a little now too.

"No, you're not," Steve told him, shutting the door on him.

"Daddy!" Lucy said, coming down the stairs. She was dressed in a black mini skirt and a dark green tank top that was loose fitting. "Why would you do that?!"

"There's no way you're going out with him," Steve argued. "He's too old for you."

"MOM!" Lucy said, hopping off the last step and going over to the table. Like with Julia, Alexia had always mediated between her and Steve. He followed his daughter over to the table.

"Did you know about this Lex?" Steve asked his wife who was already rubbing her temples. One of her least favorite jobs as a mom was mediating between her over protective husband and her daughters that continually pushed the limit. It always gave her a headache.

"No," Alexia told him, looking over at their daughter. "And, Lucy, we've talked about this. You don't just drop bombs on your dad like this! We break it to him gently."

"Otherwise, he'll have an aneurysm," Danny jumped in, earning a glare from Steve.

"There's no way I'm ok with this," Steve continued. "He's way too old for her, he's in college."

"He's twenty dad," Lucy argued, crossing her arms. "That's only three years!"

"Twenty?" Steve asked. "He's gonna be old enough to drink soon, you're not even old enough to vote."

"Would you really let her go out dressed like that anyway dad?" Jack asked, bringing his sister's tiny mini skirt to his father's attention.

"JACK!" Lucy shouted as he father started lecturing her on her clothes.

"Hey!" Alexia said, standing up and getting their attention. "You." She looked at Jack. "Stay out of it. You." She was looking at Lucy. "Upstairs. And you." She finally looked at Steve. "Outside."

"But mom, that's not fair!" Lucy told her as Steve went out on the back deck.

"Just go upstairs while I talk to your dad," Alexia told her, though she was in some agreement with Steve that Sam was too old for Lucy. Lucy huffed, going upstairs to her room and stomping the whole way to her bedroom door which she slammed. Alexia turned to go out to talk to Steve, leaving Danny and Jack at the table. Steve was leaning against the railing, watching the rain pour off the roof above him.

"You can't tell me you're ok with her going out with him," Steve said, turning when Alexia came outside.

"Hey, I'm not happy about it either," Alexia told him. "And she should have never sprung it on us like that. But-"

"But nothing Lex," Steve argued. "He's a junior in college, she hasn't even taken her SATs yet."

"Look, you're right," Alexia agreed. "He's too old for her, but you shouldn't have exploded like that. You can't just slam the door on guys that you don't like." She sighed. "Listen, it's probably just a phase. Next week she'll be back on a Jessie kick."

"Oh God," Steve groaned, rubbing his forehead; he felt like he might actually have an aneurysm. Jessie was Lucy's on again/off again boyfriend that she had since she was old enough to date at fifteen. One week he was all she could talk about, the next she was throwing his stuff out on the front lawn from her window. He was a stereotypical high school _bad boy_, with messy dark brown hair and hazel eyes, being average height and wiry. Steve hadn't like Jessie from the start and wished that he got to slam the door on him. No matter what happened though, he could never seem to get rid of this kid.

"I know," Alexia agreed, wrapping her arms around his middle. "But, at least he's seventeen."

"I never thought I'd miss Jessie," Steve said, kissing her once. They both went back inside, hearing Grace and Julia having gotten there. Grace stopped to greet her dad at the table while Julia went to grab a plate for food. She greeted her parents when they came inside.

"Hey," Julia smiled at them, putting ketchup on her veggie burger. "I didn't know Sam and Lucy were dating." She chuckled. "I didn't think dad would be cool with her going out with someone that much older than her."

"What are you talking about Jules?" Steve asked.

"When we were coming down the street, I saw them driving the other way in Sam's truck," Julia explained; she then studied her parents' faces. "Which...you guys didn't know about."

"Oh man," Jack laughed from the table. "Lucy snuck out?"

Alexia wasn't sure what Steve was going to do. When they were seniors in high school, she remembered Julia and Grace had snuck out to go to a college frat party. Julia had said that she was going to stay with Grace while Grace told Danny she was going to stay at Julia's. The dads ended up putting it together though, going to the party to pick the girls up. They made a huge scene about it though to embarrass their daughters, breaking up the party since they were the police. Rather than leave the house to chase after them, however, Steve sat back down at the table.

"Babe," Alexia said as he started eating again. "What are you doing?"

"Waiting."

* * *

Lucy was genuinely surprised as Sam drove her home that night. She thought that Julia had seen them leaving, but if she had she hadn't told her parents about it. Even if Julia hadn't told, she figured they would have noticed that she wasn't in her room at some point. Either scenario, in her mind, ended with her dad tracking them down and dragging her home.

Now, however, it was late when Sam was bringing her back. All the lights were off in the house which made it even easier for her to sneak back in. Since her bedroom window faced the front of the house, anyone sitting in the living room would have been able to see her climbing the tree to get back inside. She made it back in unnoticed though, turning on the bedside light so she could see.

"AH!" she screamed and jumped back when she saw him. Steve was sitting at the chair by her desk. "Daddy! Holy shit!"

"Watch your mouth," he told her, getting up from the chair; they were standing on opposite sides of her bed as he held out his hand. Lucy looked at him and his hand curiously.

"What?" she asked.

"Your phone," he answered.

"But daddy!" He continued to hold out his hand and she rolled her eyes, handing over her cell phone which he put in his pocket.

"And your keys," he said, holding his hand out again.

"My keys?" she asked with raised eye brows. "Are you gonna lock me out of the house?"

"No, your car keys," he clarified.

"My _car_ keys?" she asked in shock. "How will I get to school or practice?!"

"Your mother or I will drive you," he said as she handed them over.

"That's not fair!"

"You should have thought about that before you snuck out," Steve told her, going to leave her room. Lucy didn't say anything, but she did slam the door once he left.

* * *

Sunday was tense in the McGarrett house. Julia was stopping in and out to pick up the rest of her things before she started her classes the next day. Jack went out biking with his friends again. Since Lucy was grounded, she was sulking around the house all day, glaring at her father whenever they crossed paths. Sunday was Steve's day off, but Alexia had work that afternoon. She was at the nurses station, filling out a chart on her last patient when one of the other doctors came over to her.

"I think this is yours," she told her, smiling a little. Alexia looked over in the chair behind her where Jack was sitting, holding gauze on his head.

"Oh my God, Jack," Alexia sighed at the sight of him. "Thank you," she said to the other doctor, going over and leading Jack to one of the available beds. He hopped up on it, removing the gauze so Alexia could examine the gash above his eye brow. "Were you at least-"

"Wearing my helmet?" Jack offered as she started cleaning his wound. "Yes mom."

"What were you doing?" Alexia asked as she began to stitch him up. He opened his mouth to explain but she stopped him. "You know what, there's some things, as your mom, it's better that I don't know. Just...don't do it again."

"Got it," Jack agreed as she finished giving his stitches. Alexia called Steve so he could come pick Jack up since she wasn't done at work yet. Steve met her outside the emergency room entrance, with Lucy sulking in the front seat; he wasn't letting her out of his sight.

"Hey kid," Steve said as Jack got into the back of the car. "You all right?"

"Yeah, I'm ok dad," Jack said; Steve nodded, looking out the window at his wife.

"That one is going to kill me," Alexia told him. This wasn't Jack's first visit to the emergency room; he was just like his father that way.

"See you at dinner?" Steve smiled at her.

"Yeah," she nodded as they drove off. She sighed, walking back into the ER. Between her husband, her son, and her daughters, it was any wonder she wasn't completely gray yet.

**thanks for reading! hope you like the spin off so far. please let me know your thoughts! :) **


	2. A Day At The Beach

**thank you so much for the reviews, follows, and favorites! thanks also to those who favorited/followed me. it all means so much to me! :) hope you like this update! **

_A Day at the Beach _

The first week of school went well, or as well as it could. Julia was enjoying her classes and was telling her mom about them when she called that afternoon. Jack was having a good time back at school with his friends as well as football practice. Lucy, however, was another story. When she wasn't at school or at cheer practice, she was pouting around the house which she had no problem displaying in front of her father.

Lucy had searched high and low for her phone or keys around the house, but Steve knew her well enough that he locked them in his desk at his office. It was Saturday morning and Steve was driving her out to the high school for one last SAT prep class before she took the test the following weekend; she didn't talk to him the entire way there. Once he dropped her off, he went in to work where Danny and Chin were already in the conference room.

"Hey," Steve nodded at them.

"What's bugging you?" Chin asked him.

"Hurricane Lucy?" Danny offered. It was no secret that Steve's middle child easily gave him the most headaches.

"Well, she's been downgraded to a category three," Steve said with fake enthusiasm. "She's gone from slamming doors and telling me I'm the worst to not talking to me at all."

"Means you're doing it right my friend," Danny assured him, having had his own battles with Grace when she was in high school. "She'll be over it in a few days."

Steve wasn't overly worried, these spats with Lucy always panned out. In any case, she had snuck out so she had to know that there were going to be consequences for it. He knew that her attitude was starting to take a toll on everyone in the house though. When Steve had lunch, he left to go pick up Lucy at the high school so he could take her home; again, she was silent most of the way.

"How was your class?" Steve asked as he drove; Lucy was leaning against her door with her head against the window.

"Fine," she mumbled, sitting up the whole way; she hesitated before she asked the next question. "Jenna told me that there was a back to school party at the U tonight." Jenna was Lucy's best friend since elementary school. Her older sister went to the University of Hawaii with Julia and Grace.

"Sounds like fun," Steve agreed, only letting Lucy go to parties there before because her older sister was there. "If it was next weekend you could go."

"Daddy," Lucy complained.

"Two weeks Lucy," Steve said, his tone implying that he said this repeatedly. "You were grounded for _two_ weeks, not one."

"This totally sucks!" Lucy exclaimed as he pulled into the driveway and she hopped out of the car. Steve followed her up to the house, though she slammed the door before he got there. He sighed, going inside where Lucy was currently pleading her case to her mom.

"All of my friends are going to be there," Lucy continued.

"Lucy, your dad and I both agree," Alexia was telling her; she was home with Jack since it was her afternoon off. "Sneaking out is serious and you're going to have to take responsibility for that."

"This sucks!" Lucy repeated, stomping off towards the stairs. "This house is a total prison!"

"Lucille Jane," Steve said sternly. "You're not going to talk to your mom like that."

"No, it's ok Steve," Alexia told him. "You know what, she's right."

"What?" Steve and Lucy both asked at the same time, each of them surprised.

"Mhmm," Alexia nodded, going over to the hook by the door to get her keys. "She's been stuck in the house doing nothing but studying for the past week." She held out the keys, which Lucy eyed skeptically. "You can take them," Alexia encouraged and Lucy took them from her. "You should go to the beach," Alexia suggested. "Actually, since your brother's friends cancelled this morning you can take him surfing with you."

"All right!" Jack said from the top of the stairs where he had been listening. He was restless as he was stuck at the house, so he was excited to get to go out. "I'll go change."

"Mom," Lucy complained; this wasn't how she wanted to spend her Saturday.

"Take it or leave it," Alexia shrugged and Lucy rolled her eyes before going upstairs to change as well.

* * *

Lucy and Jack didn't talk the entire way to the beach. Lucy was still annoyed with their parents and Jack, abnormally, wasn't going to try to push her buttons too badly. They parked the car in the lot by the beach, grabbing their boards from the back. When they were all little, Steve and Lex had taught them all how to surf. As they were walking over towards the beach, Jack looked to his older sister.

"Thanks for taking me surfing Lucy," he told her genuinely.

"Sure kid," Lucy smiled a little at her not so little brother anymore. They stopped to drop their beach bag and towels while Lucy pulled up her hair. Further down the beach she noticed someone. "Oh great," she muttered to herself.

"What?" Jack asked, following her gaze. He saw Jessie, who had spotted them and was coming over. "He's not giving you a hard time, is he Lucy?"

"Nah," Lucy answered honestly. Jessie was harmless, but she appreciated her brother's concern; he had gotten the protective gene from their dad. "Why don't you head out and I'll meet you out there?"

"K," Jack nodded, heading out towards the ocean. Lucy ignored Jessie as he came over, grabbing her towel and laying it out in the sand. They had broken up two weeks prior, with her being the one that had broken up with him this time; they typically went back and forth.

"Hey Lucy," he said, observing her in her bright green two piece. She continued to ignore him, sitting down on her towel and watching her brother surf.

"What are you doing here Jessie?" Lucy finally asked.

"Surfing," he grinned, sitting in the sand next to her towel. "Like everyone else here." Lucy had noticed a few of his friends out in the water.

"I meant over _here_," she clarified, her tone annoyed.

"C'mon Luce," he said, using his shortened version of her already short name.

"No," she shook her head, looking over at him now. She wished she hadn't looked over at him. He had this wounded puppy look in his hazel eyes that he could kill her with. "You know what? _You're_ the one that shot down my California plan."

"I didn't shoot it down," he said in exasperation, not believing they were about to have this argument again. "I just said it was crazy-"

"Oh, because that's different," Lucy scoffed.

"C'mon Luce," Jessie repeated. "You know what I mean. There's no way I'd get into UCLA."

"USC," she muttered to correct him.

"Oh, because that's different," he said to tease her, mocking her tone from before. She rolled her eyes, looking back out at the water. "I don't want to go to either school, or any school for that matter."

"That doesn't mean..." She trailed off, becoming more alert as she couldn't spot her brother. "Where's Jack?"

"Right there," Jessie pointed as Jack's head popped out of the water. He grabbed his board again, paddling out further. "Look, all I was saying was it would be better if you stayed in Hawaii. It would be easier for us."

"Well, I don't want to stay in Hawaii," Lucy reiterated.

"And I don't want to move to California," Jessie said again.

"Then I don't know why we're even having this talk," Lucy retorted.

"Because it's not for an entire year Lucy," Jessie said. "I don't know why you're freaking out so bad about it now."

"If we just drag it out then-" Lucy stopped when she noticed people panicking and hurrying to get out of the water. Jack, who was further out than most, was paddling back in as well. That was when she spotted the reason for the panic; there was a fin in the water.

"Oh my God, JACK!" Lucy screeched, getting up and running towards the water while everyone else was running away from it.

"Lucy!" Jessie shouted, getting up and hurrying after her; he was afraid she was going to dive in after her brother. As Lucy got to the water's edge, the salt water splashing at her ankles, Jack was among a few people left leaving the water.

Jack was doing exactly what their dad had taught them to do in such an event. Move slowly back towards the beach, making smooth strokes as to not splash too much and attract attention. The second was to keep an eye on it at all times, but Jack had lost sight of it. The third and last thing was if, unfortunately, they couldn't get away in time they were to hit the shark as hard they could in the gills or eyes to scare it away.

"Do you see it Lucy?" Jack shouted, still being several yards away. Lucy searched the water frantically for the fin, but couldn't find it.

"I think it's gone!" Lucy called back, her voice hopeful though she knew it probably had just descended below the surface. "Just keep swimming Jack!" She watched the other surfers get back to the beach, with Jack being one of two left in the water. What was only a few seconds felt like hours. Jack was fairly close when Lucy spotted the fin again.

"JACK!" she screamed. Just as Jack turned his head, he was knocked off his board. "Oh my God!"

"Lucy, don't!" Jessie shouted, grabbing her waist to keep her out of the water.

"Jessie, let go of me!" Lucy said, trying to push his arms off of her. She saw the fin dart away, fleeing the scene. At the same time she saw Jack surface and start swimming back. It was only a few feet before the water was shallow enough for him to get up and run the rest of the way out to his sister. Out of breath, he collapsed against her, both of them falling over into the sand.

"Oh thank God," Lucy said, sitting up to look Jack over.

"You all right kid?" Jessie asked, kneeling down to them.

"Did it get you anywhere?" Lucy asked, turning her brother every way to check him for wounds.

"No, Lucy," Jack said, trying to get her to look at him. She was literally checking each hand for ten fingers. "Hey." He had to grab Lucy's face between his hands to get her to focus. "I'm fine. After it knocked me off, I kicked it in the gills." He shrugged, letting go of his sister. "My board probably got the worst of it."

"Um, I'd say so," Jessie said from the edge of the water where Jack's board had washed up. When he lifted it up they could see the large bite taken out of the side of it.

* * *

Steve was still at work that afternoon, combing through evidence of a recent case with Danny and Chin. The silence in the office was driving them all crazy, so they turned on the tv for background noise. When they heard the breaking news come on, they turned up the volume more to listen.

_"A local beach is closed today after a shark attack earlier this afternoon," _the reporter said, standing on the beach in front of empty ways._ "Officials say it was a tiger shark, approximately twelve feet in length."_

"Damn," Danny commented; he looked over to his partner who was frantically pulling his phone out. "What's with you?"

"Jack and Lucy went surfing today," Steve answered, instinctively calling his daughter. From where he was in the conference room, he could hear her phone ringing in his desk drawer. "Dammit." In his panic, he forgot that he had confiscated Lucy's phone. He couldn't call Jack because he wasn't allowed to have a cell phone until he was in high school.

"Hey, look," Danny pointed out. "They just said that no one was hurt." As Danny finished saying this, Steve was preparing to call Alexia but she was already calling him.

"Lex-"

_"They're at the house," _Alexia immediately told him._ "Everything is fine. They're both just shaken up."_

"Good, they're all right" Steve sighed, relieved. "I'll be home soon, ok?" Steve left work immediately, heading home to check on the kids. When he got there, he didn't see Alexia's car in the driveway, but Jessie's jeep was there.

"Oh come on," Steve groaned, not up for this right now. When he came into the house, Jessie was sitting on the couch alone. He could hear the others upstairs.

"Hey Mr. M," Jessie nodded at him. "I'm just waiting on Mrs. M so I can take her back to get her car."

"You drove Lucy and Jack back here?" Steve asked; Jessie nodded.

"Lucy was freaking out," Jessie explained. "I didn't think that she should drive."

"Thanks Jessie," Steve told him as he noticed Alexia coming down the stairs. He came up on the bottom flight, meeting her half way. "Are they ok?"

"They're fine," Alexia promised. "Jack's in his room, Lucy's in the shower. I think she's more panicked about it than he is."

"Was she in the water?" Steve asked; Alexia shook her head.

"Jack was, but he got away from it," Alexia said; Steve looked her over once.

"You seem really calm about all this," Steve commented.

"I didn't want to upset them more," Alexia said, running a hand through her hair. "But, I think I'm having that aneurysm Danny keeps talking about." Steve gave her a half smile, squeezing her hand. "I better go get the car," she continued. "Check on Jack please?"

"Yeah," Steve nodded as she went the rest of the way down the stairs.

"Ready Mrs. M?" Jessie asked, standing up.

"Yep," she nodded, leading the way outside.

"Later Mr. M," Jessie told him, following Alexia outside. "Tell Lucy I'll call her later."

"Yeah," Steve nodded, heading upstairs. Jack's door was open partially, so Steve knocked on it as he was opening it. Jack was sitting at his desk on his laptop, clicking through pictures of sharks.

"Oh hey dad," Jack said, shutting his computer. "What's up?"

"You doing all right kid?" Steve asked, sitting on the edge of Jack's bed.

"I'm fine dad," Jack laughed, holding up both of his hands. "Lucy already checked, I still have all ten." Steve gave a half smile to his son.

"What happened out there?" he asked; Jack shrugged.

"I was out in the water and I saw this shadow under me," Jack started out saying. "I figured it was a turtle or something, so I ignored it. I couldn't see how big it was." Jack looked at his dad. "The news said it was twelve feet?"

"A tiger shark," Steve confirmed.

"I hid my board in the garage," Jack told his dad. "If mom saw the bite, she would probably flip."

"Probably," Steve agreed, not wanting to let Jack know how badly he would _flip_ with he saw the bite mark. "How did you get out of there?"

"I did what you told me to," Jack answered. "I swam clean, me and Lucy both kept an eye on it, and I played defense, not offense."

"You hit it?" Steve asked in surprise of his thirteen year old.

"Kicked it," Jack clarified. "In the gills." Jack looked at his dad curiously. "Have you ever touched one before?"

"Nope," Steve shook his head. In all his time in the water he had encountered sharks a few times, but they never came close enough. He had hoped none of his kids would ever get that close to one.

"It was really..." Jack struggled for the words. "Weird. It felt kind of like sand, but super solid at the same time."

"Sure you're all right kid?" Steve asked.

"Fine," Jack promised. "You should probably check on Lucy though, she was really losing it at the beach."

Steve nodded, getting up and kissing Jack's head as he walked by and out of the room to go check on Lucy. She was laying on her bed, her hair still wet from her shower. When her dad knocked on the door frame, she looked up to see who it was. She didn't say anything as her head fell back against her pillows. Steve pulled the chair from her desk over to the bedside, turning it around backwards and taking a seat; he waited for her to start.

"Did you see Jack's board?" Lucy asked, turning her head to the side to look at her dad; he shook his head. "I wouldn't." She turned to look back up at the ceiling. "It's scary, it was almost his face."

"Hey," Steve said, getting her attention; she looked over again. "You both did really good today."

"I didn't _do_ anything," Lucy said in frustration, sitting up cross legged on her bed, facing her dad. "I tried to get in after him, but Jessie wouldn't let me." She brushed her hair behind her ear. "He's stupid," she muttered, disliking him right now for more than one reason.

"Normally, I'd agree with you," Steve told his daughter. "But, he did good today too." She rolled her eyes. "You know you're not supposed to go out there Lucy. More swimming and splashing would have drawn more attention. And you would have put yourself in danger."

"But it didn't feel right just leaving him out there!" Lucy said back. "That thing was going to make him lunch and I was just supposed to watch?"

"Jack told me you kept an eye on it while he swam back," Steve said. "You did good sweetheart, you really did."

"I don't want to talk about it anymore," Lucy mumbled, playing with her hands.

"That's fine," Steve agreed, getting up and replacing her chair.

"Daddy," Lucy said as he got to the doorway. When he turned around, she was up and throwing her arms around him to hug him. Steve hugged her back tight, kissing the top of her head.

* * *

Steve had left his two youngest children upstairs, going to dispose of Jack's board before Alexia got home. He didn't want her to see it and worry more, though when he saw the bite radius his stomach sank as well. Dinner was quiet, but all right as no one brought up the incident. Julia called her dad with worry once she found out, but he promised everything was ok. That night, both Steve and Alexia were wide awake in their bed, both laying on their backs and staring up.

"You awake?" Steve asked, turning over on his side.

"What do you think?" Alexia answered, turning as well. Before Steve could reply, they heard footsteps in the hall that headed down the steps. "Sounds like we're not the only ones up."

"I got him," Steve said, getting up.

"No, I can go," Alexia said, getting out of bed first.

"You sure?"

"Yeah," she promised, leaving the room. Steve knew what she was about to share with Jack, so he understood that she was the best one to talk to him right now about what he was feeling. She found Jack sitting at the kitchen table, sipping at a glass of water.

"Sorry mom," Jack apologized. "Did I wake you up?"

"It's ok," Alexia promised, sitting next to him; he wasn't looking at her. She knew that he would never openly admit to being scared about what happened that day. "It's all right honey, to be scared about what happened earlier." Jack didn't say anything. "You wanna know something?"

"Sure," Jack nodded.

"I've touched one," Alexia said. Steve had told her earlier how Jack had asked if he had ever touched a shark before. Jack looked at his mom in surprise "Or, rather, it touched me."

"What happened?" Jack asked. "Were you surfing?"

"No," Alexia shook her head. "One time, when I was twelve my dad took me and Uncle Seth out deep sea fishing." She smiled a little. "My mom said that I was too little, but I begged her to let me go."

"You were on a boat?"

"Well, it was really hot," Alexia explained. "So, before we started fishing, my dad let me and Uncle Seth jump off and go swimming." He had thought that, by letting them go before fishing, it wouldn't attract any sharks.

"By yourselves?"

"He had to stay on the boat," Alexia went on. "Plus, Uncle Seth was seventeen and a really good swimmer." Jack nodded. "Anyway, we weren't in the water a couple minutes before we noticed the fin. My dad wanted to jump in after us, but he knew the splashing would make it worse." She sighed. "It wasn't circling or acting aggressive, so my dad said just to stay still, that it would check us out and leave."

"Then what happened?" Jack asked.

"Your uncle held onto my arms to help me float, so I wouldn't kick too much," Alexia answered. "It came up, bumped my leg to check me out, then left. And we swam like hell back to the boat." She studied her son's reaction. "I didn't sleep after that."

"Really?" Jack asked; she nodded.

"Your uncle and your grandpa took turns sleeping on my floor," she recalled with a smile. "And you know what?"

"What?"

"After I worried for about a week, I got back in the water," Alexia answered. "And everything was fine."

"You're ok with me getting back in the ocean?" Jack asked. He knew how his mother was, how she constantly worried, especially about him and his dad.

"We live on an island honey," Alexia smiled at him. "The ocean is hard to avoid." Jack smiled back.

"Love you mom."

"I love you too honey."

**so it came out very jack/lucy centered, so the next one with be more focused on julia and one of her relationships (it won't be nearly as traumatic as this last one was, promise lol) hope you liked it! please let me know your thoughts! :)**


	3. Like Her Mother

**thank you so much for the reviews, follows, and favorites! thanks also to those who favorited/followed me. it all means so much to me! :) this chapter is going to be all julia and...well...i just hope no one got too attached to nick in the bits from the other story? lol...anyway, hope you like it! :) **

_Like Her Mother_

_"Hey Jules," _Steve said into the phone._ "What are you up to?"_

"Just studying," Julia answered. She had her books spread out all over the table, her laptop open in front of her. She had a big project due Monday morning. Though she didn't care to admit it, she did put it off a little longer than she should have. That's what lead her to be sitting in her kitchen on a Friday night doing homework instead of going out with her friends.

_"I'm heading through Waikiki now," _Steve said, which was where the main campus of the University was as well as Julia's apartment._ "Just finished up with work. Didn't know if you wanted to grab a late dinner with your old man."_ Julia glanced at the time and she hadn't realized how late it was.

"I really need to finish this dad," Julia answered sadly; she was starving and wasn't happy to have Ramen noodles yet again. "Could we get breakfast tomorrow?"

_"Sure sweetheart,"_ Steve smiled. He could practically picture her sitting at the table, hair up and glasses on, much like how her mother used to study. They were alike in a lot of ways.

"Besides," Julia went on. "You know how mom worries when you're gone this late for work."

_"Good point,"_ Steve laughed._ "All right sweetheart, I'll see you in the morning. Love you."_

"Love you too dad," Julia said, hanging up. Julia sighed, going to change the music that was playing from her laptop. Hearing something behind her, she turned her head to see Grace coming out of her room with her laundry basket.

"Man, are you still working on that?" Grace commented, walking through the small apartment with her basket on her hip.

"Unfortunately," Julia grumbled, pushing up her glasses; when she studied this long, she never wore her contacts.

"Need any laundry done?" Grace asked.

"Nah, I'm ok thanks," Julia shook her head. "See ya."

"Bye!" Grace said, heading out of the apartment. Julia sighed, checking the time again on her phone; it was after nine. When she looked at her phone, the background made her both happy and sad at the same time. It was a picture of her and her boyfriend, Ben, on the beach last year.

The McGarrett kids got personality traits from both of their parents. However, where Jack and Lucy were a lot like their dad, Julia was mostly like their mom. She got seriously focused on her studies, much like her mother used to. Out of the three kids, she was definitely the worrier and part of that probably came from being the oldest. There was one way that she hadn't planned on being like her mother though. As a child, it was actually something that she hoped to avoid.

When she was little, she saw what it was like for her mother when her dad was away on his assignments. There were more nights than she cared to remember that she could hear Alexia crying late at night in the next room. Sometimes, it wasn't even better when her dad was home because all they would do was fight about when he was coming home for good. The way she saw it, things with her parents didn't get better until Steve came home and joined Five-0. That was why, at a young age, she swore that she would never fall for someone in the military. It was too hard. And if it was hard for her parents, if her dad had a hard time leaving the service, even when he loved and adored her mom so much, how would it ever work for her?

Then she met Ben.

Ben was a lot of things. He was two years older than Julia. He was a Seattle native, where his parents still lived though they were separated. Ben was tall, with broad shoulders and strong arms. His eyes were bright green and his hair was short, medium brown. Ben was the second oldest of four boys, the order being Max, Ben, Alex, and Ethan. And, like many generations in his family before him, Ben was in the Navy and was stationed in Hawaii.

Ben and Julia had met at a party two years before when Julia was a freshman. Julia and Grace had managed to get a hold of some fake IDs, so they could get into a frat party across campus. Julia found that she didn't really like the older crowd though, having had a bit too much to drink and a creepy guy that wouldn't get off her case; then Ben stepped in. Before taking Julia and Grace home, he scared the guy off. Since then, when Ben wasn't away, him and Julia were inseparable. Right now though, Ben had been gone for close to six months and Julia was missing him more than anyone really knew. Not able to call him right now, Julia decided to call the second person that understood how she felt; her mom.

"Hello?" Alexia answered, surprised Julia was calling so late. "Julia, is everything all right?" Steve was looking at Alexia curiously. Since it was Friday, Jack was out at the movies with some of his friends and Lucy, who was finally no longer grounded, was at a friend's house. Steve and Lex had the house to themselves. They were watching a movie in the living room, with Alexia sitting sideways with her legs over Steve's lap.

_"I'm fine mom," _Julia promised._ "But...can I talk to you about something?"_

"Sure honey," Alexia nodded. "What is it?"

_"Ben."_

"Ok," Alexia answered. "What's going on?" Steve mouthed to Alexia _what is it_ to which she mouthed back _Ben_. Steve nodded, lifting her legs up so he could get off the couch and give her a minute. He knew that it was hard for Julia and Ben, though Julia never talked to him about it. Though Alexia understood the situation better, he also figured part of it was because Julia didn't want to hurt his feelings.

"Julia," Alexia said when her daughter didn't answer for a bit. "We've talked about this before honey."

_"I know,"_ Julia mumbled._ "But, right now it's so hard. I don't know when he's coming back."_ She sighed._ "You know what that's like."_

"I know," Alexia nodded in agreement. "It's not easy, I know that sweetheart." She ran a hand through her hair. "It's all in what you want to live with, it's not for everyone." Julia didn't say anything for a moment. "Do you love him Julia?"

_"Mom," _Julia complained; she always did this._ "Please don't do the three question thing."_

"Hey," Alexia said. "These questions work. And, I wish my mom had been there for me to ask me them." She smiled a little. "Then, I wouldn't have fake divorced your dad." Julia laughed a little.

_"Yes,"_ Julia said, answering the question.

"And, you see yourself staying with him?" Alexia asked. "Long term?"

_"Of course,"_ Julia nodded.

"And, things are better with him than without him?"

_"Mhmm,"_ Julia nodded again.

"Then, I think you already know what you want," Alexia promised her. "There's not always going to be easy days honey, but you two can do it."

_"Ok," _Julia agreed, knowing her mom was right, that she was just having a sad day._ "Thanks mom."_

"Sure," Alexia smiled. "Now, don't worry about it too much. I'm sure you'll be hearing from Ben soon."

_"How do you know that?"_

"I'm your mother, I know everything."

_"Bye mom,"_ Julia laughed.

"Bye," Alexia laughed as well, hanging up and setting her phone on the coffee table. "You're clear to stop listening from the kitchen." Steve came around the corner.

"I wasn't listening," Steve insisted, handing her a water before resuming his seat.

"You're a bad liar," Alexia fake accused, teasing him.

"Is Julia all right?" Steve asked in concern; Alexia nodded.

"She'll be fine," Alexia promised. "It's just hard for her sometimes. She was old enough to remember-"

"Me being away so much," Steve answered.

"I was going to say how I was," Alexia said back. "Girls like me and Julia, we're not any less proud of our dads. We're afraid of being our moms." She leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. "That girl adores you, all the kids do."

"And you?" Steve asked as she relaxed back against the arm of the couch.

"I tolerate you," Alexia teased, smiling at him.

"Very funny," Steve said, squeezing her leg.

"But, like I said, everything's fine," Alexia promised again, seeing Steve still held some concern. "You don't have to worry about Julia getting rid of your favorite boyfriend."

"I wish you'd stop calling him that, it sounds weird." Alexia laughed.

"Ben is easily your favorite though," she prodded. "Out of everyone either of the girls has dated."

"Yeah," Steve said like it was obvious.

"And he just happens to be the first one that ever been in the service," Alexia said skeptically.

"It's a little coincidental," Steve agreed. "But that's not the reason."

"Uh huh," Alexia laughed.

"You like him better than everyone else too," Steve insisted.

"Ok, but I liked Matt," Alexia argued back, recalling Julia's last boyfriend. "I liked Cody."

"You did _not_ like Cody."

"Yes, I did!" Alexia laughed, completely amused by this argument right now. "Ok, fine. Why else do you like Ben?"

"Because," Steve started to explain. "He's a good kid. I know Julia's safe when she's out with him. He's polite, he's respectful." Steve shrugged. "And, he sleeps on the couch."

"Oh," Alexia laughed, covering her mouth a little. "That's cute."

"What's cute?" Steve asked curiously.

"You think he actually sleeps on the couch," Alexia answered; it was something Julia had told him the first time Ben had stayed over and Steve caught them the next morning. "Babe, I know you hate it when I compare it to when we were young-"

"Then why do you do it?" Steve asked, though he was smiling.

"To remind you that we were young once," Alexia smiled back. "And that, as a twenty two years old, you never slept on my couch."

"And you couldn't just let me go on believing that he did?"

"Does that sound like me?"

* * *

Lost in thought, Julia jumped when her phone started ringing. Seeing that it was Ben, she practically fell out of her seat with excitement as she answered. She wondered how her mom could always be right about things like this, but was happy that she was.

"Hey," she smiled big. She didn't know why she smoothed a hand over her messy up do; he couldn't see her obviously. "I was just thinking about you. What's up?"

_"Nothing too much," _Ben answered, smiling when he heard her voice._ "Just wanted to talk to my girl." _Julia grinned, loving when he referred to her as _his girl. "Were you thinking good things?"_

"Just about how much I missed you," Julia said honestly. "When are you coming back?" She thought about it. "Wait, where are you calling me from?"

_"Well-"_

_"Oh, hey Ben,"_ Julia could hear Grace's voice saying._ "Whatcha doing out in the hall?"_

_"Shhh!"_ Ben complained, though he was sure Julia already heard; she had. Julia dropped the phone, hopping up from her seat and running over to the door of her apartment. A few feet down the hall, she spotted Ben with Grace.

"Ben!" she squealed, running towards him. She remembered this feeling from when her dad would come home, wishing her legs would move even faster than they already were. Though she obviously didn't jump on her dad and nearly take him out like she was with Ben, the_ you're home and you're safe_ feeling was absolutely the same.

"You're home!" she continued in excitement, still shocked that he was back as he held her up; neither of them noticed Grace awkwardly back out and head back inside. "You're here, you're back-"

"I am," Ben chuckled, kissing her.

"Oh my God!" Julia went on, squeezing him tight. "I can't believe it. How long are you back for?" Ben opened his mouth to answer, but she immediately cut him off. "You know, what I don't care. You're here now! And-"

"Slooooow down Smalls," Ben teased her, using his given nickname for her as he set her down on the ground. Julia was about average height, but in her small frame compared to him she always seemed exceptionally tiny. "Yes," he grinned, taking her face in his hands. "I'm back. And for six months, at least."

"Shut UP!" Julia beamed, standing up on her toes to kiss him. "Really?"

"Promise," Ben laughed, brushing a stray piece of hair out of her face.

"Oh God," Julia blushed, remembering that she had been in full study mode before this. "I'm such a mess, I-"

"Hey," Ben stopped her, hooking his fingers in the belt loops of her cut off shorts so he could pull her close. "You're beautiful." He kissed her lightly. "And, I love your glasses." With that, he scooped his duffel bag from the floor, wrapping his free arm around Julia's shoulders. When they got back into the apartment, Grace was sitting at the counter with the phone in her hand.

"Glad you're home Ben," Grace finally got to tell him. "I'm ordering pizza, you guys want any?"

"Yeah, definitely," Julia nodded as they came in. Ben went to drop his duffel bag in her room before joining her on the couch.

The apartment layout was small and simple. Walking in, you immediately came into the small kitchen, with a small L shaped counter on one side and a small round table on the left. Straight ahead was the living room, which contained a couch, a chair, and a coffee table; the backs of the chair and couch faced the kitchen, the front facing the wall where the tv was. On either side of the tv were two doors, the one on the left being Julia's and the one on the right being Grace's. On the right there was a large window that looked out on campus and next to that was the tiny bathroom the girls shared.

"So," Ben said, sitting with Julia on the couch; Grace had gone into her room to call for the pizza. "How are your classes babe?"

"Eh," Julia shrugged, nodding over at the table. "Not awesome at the moment."

"Ok," Ben laughed, ready to change the subject; talking about school too much sometimes stressed Julia out. "When did you guys move in here?"

"Two weeks ago," Julia answered.

"It's a nice place," he commented. "How's your family?"

"They're good," she nodded. "Oh! I didn't tell you though. How about last weekend Jack got attacked by a shark while he was surfing."

"Oh my God," Ben said in shock. "Is he all right?"

"Yeah, he's perfectly fine," Julia nodded. "He kicked it and it swam away."

"All right Jack," Ben laughed. "Nice one." Julia gave him a look. "I mean, that's still scary and all. But damn." Julia laughed, looking over as Grace came out of her room.

"Ok, I'm heading out to get the pizza," Grace said, grabbing her bag to leave.

"No way," Ben said, getting up. "It's really late, you shouldn't head out. I'll go."

"You sure?" Grace asked.

"Yeah," Ben promised, kissing Julia's head as he walked by. "I'll be right back."

"Ok," Julia nodded. "And, when you get back, I wanna hear about everything."

"Promise," Ben laughed, heading out to grab the pizza for the girls. Julia fell back on the couch, perfectly content. Grace leaned over the back, smiling at her.

"You got a good one," Grace told her, tucking a piece of dark brown hair behind her ear. "You said he has brothers, right?" Both girls laughed.

"Three," Julia nodded. "One's married though."

"Eh," Grace shrugged, joining her roommate on the couch. "Two for three isn't bad, right?" Both girls laughed again.

Julia was perfectly happy now, especially having Ben home. Her mom was right when she did her little Q & A before on the phone. It was worth it because things were always better with him in her life than without him.

**thanks for reading! hope that you liked it! i got the idea for julia to date someone in the service and i couldn't leave it! so...ben is better than nick, right? lol let me know what you thought! :)**


	4. The Same Person

**thanks so much for the reviews, favorites, and follows! glad to hear everyone likes ben lol hope you all like this update, i'm sorry it took me so long! :) lots of hurricane lucy in this one lol **

_The Same Person_

"Mmmm," Grace contemplated as she looked Julia over; they were all in Lucy's room. Grace and Lucy were sitting on her bed while Julia was trying on various dresses. Her and Grace had brought some over and she was also trying on some of Lucy's. Ben had been home for about a month now and it was Julia and his two year anniversary.

"I don't know," Grace continued. "Try the blue one again." She turned to Lucy who was busy on her laptop. "What do you think?"

"Ah, yeah, the black one," Lucy nodded in agreement, distracted.

"I haven't tried on a black one," Julia said in exasperation. "Lucy."

"What?" Lucy asked, her head snapping up from her computer.

"I need your help," Julia went on. Her sister and Grace were both much better at getting ready for dates and things like that than Julia, even if she and Ben had been dating for two years. They were the ones the picked out cute outfits, doing their make up perfectly and hair. Julia, while pretty on her own, never felt like she was able to get _made up_ that well, at least not by herself. The looks Lucy and Grace had just seemed to be better put together.

"Well, I need yours," Lucy complained, turning her laptop around and revealing what she was working on. It was her application for the University of Southern California for journalism. She had been applying to schools all over the place, but this is where she really wanted to go, though she had only told her mom so far. She was sure her dad wouldn't be too happy about her trying to leave the island, especially to go live in a major city.

"Does it look ok?" Lucy asked. Julia came over and sat on the edge of the bed, looking the application over. Julia had already looked at her admissions essay several times over so she knew that was ok.

"It looks great Lucy," Julia promised. This was the first application she looked at, so she hadn't seen her sister's SAT scores yet. "Your SATs are great!"

"Yeah, but that's combined," Lucy complained, turning her laptop back around so she could submit her application. "They want better math scores which I didn't get."

"But you probably nailed writing then, which I'm sure is way more important in a journalism program," Julia assured her. "I bet you get in."

"Thanks Julesy," Lucy told her. "And you should go with the dark green one."

"You think so?" Julia asked of the dress that she had tried on first. It was a deep green strapless dress with a hi-lo skirt.

"That's the one I liked the best!" Grace agreed. "I have these great shoes that would go with them, I think I left them in a bin at my dad's though. We can stop..."

"Hey Lucy!" Jack interrupted, calling up the stairs. "Someone is at the door for you!"

"K!" Lucy called back, shutting her laptop. "I'll be right back, check my black heels with it first," she suggested before heading downstairs. Jack had been getting ready to go out with a few of his friends, back in the water and surfing again. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me," Lucy whispered to herself, seeing who was waiting for her on the front porch outside the screen door.

Since the incident with Jack at the beach last month, Jessie had found every reason to try to talk to Lucy. First, it was that he needed to borrow her book for English, even though they weren't in the same class. Then, it was that he had to return the towel she had left in his car after the incident with Jack. Then, for awhile, he just kept coming up to her and asking about Jack first but then transitioning back to them. He always did that and it aggravated her. Jessie was convinced that they could still make it work, even if Lucy was going away for school, but Lucy was tired of hearing about it.

"I can see you through the screen Luce," Jessie chuckled as she attempted to tip toe back up the stairs. Knowing she had been caught, Lucy rolled her eyes at her pathetic attempt before going downstairs the whole way, standing on the other side of the door to talk to Jessie through the screen.

"My dad would call this stalking," Lucy informed him, crossing her arms over herself as this was the first time he had actually shown up at her house to talk to her. She wasn't up for another_ these are the reasons we should be together_ speech.

"I don't think it counts as stalking if you let the girl's kid brother know you're outside," Jessie mused. "I just wanted to see you outside of school."

"Well, you saw me," Lucy said sarcastically, grabbing the front door to shut it.

"C'mon Luce," Jessie complained, causing her to stop.

"I can't keep having this same fight Jessie," Lucy argued.

"You never let the fight happen!" Jessie fired back. "You walk away, you drive off, you slam the door on me, but you never actually talk to me about it."

"Because there isn't anything left to talk about," Lucy reasoned.

"Just like that then?" Jessie asked with raised eye brows.

"No, not _just like that_," Lucy said, using the same tone he had. "Don't act like you're the only one this is hard for."

"You're the one that's making it hard," Jessie accused.

"Are you done?" Lucy finally snapped. "I'm helping my sister right now." Jessie didn't say anything, only waved her off before turning to head down the front walk, running a hand through his hair in frustration. Lucy slammed the door shut, turning the dead bolt to lock it, even though she knew Jessie wouldn't be back; it just helped her to take out her anger. Turning around, she spotted both Grace and Julia on the stairs, her sister giving her a skeptical look.

"Don't you start with me too," Lucy immediately warned, walking by them on the stairs towards her room. Her sister was obviously very pro-long distance relationships and thought that they could work. Julia also always brought up the example of their parents, how they had been apart for four years while Alexia was in Boston and Steve was in Washington DC as well as when their father had been away as a SEAL. Then Lucy always through back the point that their mother had kicked their father out after he had been away for so long. Then Julia reminded her that their parents were still together. At this point, Lucy was just tired of arguing with everyone about it.

* * *

Steve was with Danny and Chin, working another late night case. After working for many hours, staring at the same files and evidence for almost an entire twenty four hours, they decided the best thing to do was take a minute, clearing their heads and coming back with a fresh pair of eyes. Realizing that they hadn't even taken time to eat yet, they headed down the street a few blocks to a diner owned by a local family. Steve knew that it was Jessie's family's restaurant and he wondered if he was going to be working that night. Since the shark attack last month, Jessie had grown on Steve, even it was only a little bit. He really was a good kid.

"Hey Jessie," Steve greeted him as they were sitting in the booth next to the one he was busing. "Didn't know you were working tonight."

"Wednesdays nights," Jessie nodded, seeming bothered by something; Steve picked up on it.

"Something bugging you, kid?" Steve asked, a bit concerned.

"Can I ask you something Mr. M?" Jessie asked, coming over to stand at the end of their table. "More of a favor actually."

"Ah, sure," Steve shrugged. What could it possibly be?

"Could you talk to Lucy for me?" Jessie asked and Steve raised his eye brows. "It's just, I've been trying to talk to her for awhile and she's being really stubborn..."

"I wonder where she gets that from," Danny said sarcastically, earning a glare from his partner while Chin laughed. This certainly wasn't the first time that someone compared Lucy's being difficult with Steve's same personality type. Alexia seemed to make the most comparisons between them, claiming like father like daughter.

"You know I'm Lucy's dad," Steve reminded him, since Jessie was basically asking him to convince Lucy to go back out with him. Steve hadn't been so crazy about Jessie anyway, having caught him sneaking in to the house at night more than once. "Right?"

"No, I know," Jessie asked. "I just...thought it would mean a lot coming from you? She's always talking about how great you are and stuff...I just want her to know how much I miss her." He sighed. "And I know you probably never had this problem with Mrs. M, you guys have been married for like forty years or whatever-"

"How old do you think I am Jessie?" Steve asked curiously, being only forty eight; Jessie just shrugged.

"I think she's just freaking out way too much about this whole going to California deal," Jessie went on and Steve's eye brows furrowed in confusion.

"What California deal?" Steve asked, though he pieced it together pretty quickly on his own. "Lucy wants to go to school in California?"

"USC," Jessie said like it was obvious, then realized what he did. "You didn't know that, did you?"

"No," Steve sighed, rubbing his forehead. Steve wondered why Lucy would try to sneak around him so much, especially with important stuff like this. She would really be the one to give him an aneurysm.

"Yeah, I'm gonna go..." Jessie started to say, trailing off as he actually left the table, heading back to finish his work. Just then, their waitress brought back their order, though Steve wasn't feeling very hungry, his nerves taking over. He loved Lucy, he'd support her in whatever she wanted to do; he certainly was never going to stop her from going to school where she wanted. That didn't mean he wasn't already anxious about his daughter moving to a big city, alone, after spending her entire life on the island with him and her mother.

"So, are you going to talk to Lucy?" Danny asked casually, eating one of his french fries.

"Of course I am," Steve said. "I mean, why wouldn't she tell me about where-"

"No, not that," Danny shook his head. He knew that Steve would be talking to Lucy about her choice of schools when he got home. "About the kid." Steve seemed confused. "I mean, let's face it buddy, you and _Mrs. M_ were them 13 years ago," Danny laughed.

"We were not," Steve protested.

"Oh, come on," Danny insisted. "Think about it. You wanted her back, _bad_. And all she did for months was toss you out on your ass."

"I think I remember you getting Danny on your side to talk you up and everything," Chin added, him and Danny both laughing now.

"This is the only time I've seen Lucy act like her mother," Danny continued, bringing up where Lucy got her personality from again. "She's all you pal, every stubborn bit."

* * *

After finishing their meal together and realizing how exhausted they all were, they decided to split up for the night, going home to get some sleep before starting early again the next day. Steve saw a few lights on in the house, wondering who was all still awake. He hoped that at least one of them was Lucy, he needed to talk to her tonight about what was going on with her. Coming into the house, he spotted Alexia reading on the couch, tilting her head back as she heard him come in.

"Hi babe," she smiled as he leaned over the arm of the couch to kiss her hello. "I saved you a plate from dinner."

"I already ate," he brushed it off, taking a seat in the chair near the couch.

"Uh oh," Alexia said, nothing his expression as she sat up now, closing her book and setting it to the side. "Tough night?"

"Case should pan out soon," Steve said, running a hand through his hair; they were quiet for a moment. "Did you know Lucy wanted to go to USC?"

"Possibly," Alexia said, half smiling. "It's not the reason you're thinking." Lucy wasn't afraid that her dad was going to refuse to let her leave.

"What reason?"

"The reason she didn't tell you," Alexia continued, biting her lip. "She's afraid she'll upset you if she leaves."

"What?" Steve asked, like it was ridiculous. "Why would it-"

"Steve, she knows how much you worry about her." She laughed a little. "As soon as she was old enough to know what a punch was, you taught her how to throw one." Steve had taught all the kids how to defend themselves, starting at an early age. Alexia remembered getting a few lessons of her own before she went to live in Boston on her own for med school.

"You know what I think though?" Alexia continued, getting up from her seat now to go sit on the arm of the chair.

"Mmm?" Steve asked, rubbing his forehead. How could Lucy think she couldn't tell him about something like this? He would be proud of her no matter what.

"That she doesn't know how much she's actually like you," Alexia smiled, rubbing his shoulders. "Talk to her?"

"I am," Steve assured her, getting up now to go talk to his youngest daughter, the one he heard on two separate occasions today was exactly like him; once he got up, Alexia sank off the arm to sit sideways in the chair. "You were never like this at seventeen," Steve commented as he got to the stairs, recalling many arguments with both his daughters, the door slamming, the teenage angst. Alexia never seemed like that as a teenager, not from what he remembered.

"My mother would argue differently," Alexia said, recalling the few encounters she actually had with her mother senior year as she spent most of her time at Steve's house. Steve shrugged, heading upstairs and down the hall to Lucy's room, seeing the light on under the door before knocking on it gently.

"It's open," Lucy called from the other side, sitting on her bed and furiously typing away on her laptop. Hearing the door open, she looked up and smiled a little when she saw her dad. "Hey daddy." She nodded at her open computer. "Working on my admissions essay for the U, the question is really generic though. There's nothing for me to go on."

"Mmm," Steve nodded, grabbing her desk chair she rarely sat in the sit on. "What about your essay for USC?" Lucy's mouth had dropped open a little in surprise.

"Jack?" she asked, knowing her brother was usually the one to spill the beans.

"Ah, Jessie, actually," Steve clarified.

"Jessie?" Lucy asked with raised eye brows. "When did you-"

"One headache at a time sweetheart," Steve said lightly, giving her a half smile; Lucy didn't seem so relaxed. "Lucy, why didn't you tell me you wanted to go to California?"

"Because I knew that you would freak out," Lucy reasoned, shutting her computer now. "Because it's LA, but I wouldn't be by myself." She had been preparing her speech for her dad for weeks. "Because Uncle Seth and Aunt Karen would be there if I really needed anything. And I'd have a roommate, and I promise to never go anywhere by myself. Plus Aunt Mary lives there too, with-"

"Your Uncle Chris, I know," Steve nodded. "Honey, if you want to go to USC, I think that's great."

"You do?" Lucy asked in surprise. This wasn't what she had expected from her dad at all, the dad that stayed up every night she was out until she came home. The dad that, for as long as she remembered, would drive by her school or practices to check things out, _just in case_.

"Of course I do," Steve insisted. "I am so proud of you Lucy, in everything. You wanna know how tired Danny and Chin probably get hearing me talk about you kids all the time?" he joked, making Lucy smile a little.

"You were just so happy though," Lucy continued, her smile fading a little as she looked down at her hands. "When Julia decided to stay in Hawaii for school, so I just thought-"

"Hey, whoa," Steve said with some surprise, cutting her off. "Sweetheart, no." His expression softened. "Don't _ever_ think that I expect you to be like Julia." He got up to sit on the edge of her bed so he was closer. "You wanna know something, about you girls?"

"What?" Lucy asked.

"Julia is your mother," Steve started off saying. "She is exactly like your mom, right down to that eye twitch she gets when she tries to pretend she's not mad about something."

"You've noticed that too?" Lucy asked.

"It's hard to miss," Steve smiled at her. "Your mom only wanted to leave Hawaii to go to Boston, where your grandparents met. She never would have gone to Maryland if it wasn't for me and she always wanted to come back to the island. Your sister is the same way. She's going to marry Ben and, if he's stationed in Hawaii the rest of his career, that's where she'll stay."

"How do you know she'll marry Ben?" Lucy asked curiously.

"Ah," Steve laughed a little, allowing the subject change. "Don't tell your mom, someone should be surprised around here. But, Ben asked me if he could ask Julia to marry him." He smiled a little. "I think he wanted to ask her at dinner tonight."

"Shut UP!" Lucy squealed in excitement, adoring Ben and her sister together. "That's so great dad."

"It is," Steve agreed. "And, if that's what Julia wants, I want her to have it."

"Just another way Julia's like mom," Lucy commented about Julia marrying someone in the military, and Steve nodded.

"You're not like your mom though," Steve added. "You, sweetheart, have the misfortune of being like your old man."

"It's not a misfortune," Lucy said softly.

"Would you mind passing that on to your Uncle Danny?" Steve laughed, getting her to smile again. "Lucy, I get it. I know exactly what it is that you want, ok? You know how big the world is, and you want to _see_ it. You want to explore, try new things. That's why you want to be a journalist, right?" She nodded. "That's part of why I joined the Navy," he continued. "Because I knew there was so much out there, there was something big that I could be part of." He held a hand up to explain. "And that's not to say that I didn't want to be with your mom or you kids, because I did. And, I'm sure you'll handle that much better than I did..."

"We're not going into Jessie territory, are we?" Lucy asked.

"Not if you don't want to," Steve shook his head, though once Danny had mentioned it he did realize that he did have something in common with this kid; they were both completely wrapped around the girl they loved's finger. "All I'm saying is, he knows I'm not crazy about him and he still asked me for my help. That's gotta mean something."

"Maybe," Lucy shrugged. "It's just, with you and mom-"

"Um," Steve stopped her. "The situation with me and your mom was a little different." He gave a half smile. "And I'm hoping for my sanity, as well as your mother's, that you don't go to half the places I went."

"Promise," Lucy smiled, ready to share more now that she knew he understood. "I kinda always wanted to travel around Europe."

"Europe's amazing," Steve nodded. "You would love Barcelona, or Venice. London..."

"You've been a little of every where, haven't you dad?" Lucy asked; he nodded.

"And you'll get there," Steve promised, getting her to come over so he could pull her into a hug. "I'm always rooting for you Lucy."

**thanks for reading! really hope that you liked it, again, i'm sorry i took so long! so many people have commented how lucy is like steve so i really wanted to address that in it's own chapter lol please let me know what you thought! :)**


	5. Boys Being Boys

**thanks so much for the reviews, favorites, and follows! and thanks to those who followed me! glad that everyone is enjoying the story so far and thanks for all your kind reviews on "how did we get here" (over 300? you guys rock lol) hope you all like this update! this is jack's chapter, which has a lot more flashbacks than the girls mostly because i went from writing him as a new born to being a teenager, so i wanted to do some in between lol enjoy!**

_Boys Being Boys_

_Flashback - age 5_

Alexia sat on the beach, reading in her chair and occasionally peering over her sunglasses to smile at her boys in the water. It was a beach day for her, Steve, and Jack. Julia was thirteen so she wanted to spend most of her time with her friends these days and Lucy was ten, just starting cheerleading try outs. Jack was five and thrilled to have both parents to himself that day. Alexia, currently immersed in the next chapter of her book, snapped her head up when she heard crying. Steve was carrying Jack up, who was curled against Steve's chest and crying, both of them dripping with ocean water.

"What happened?" Alexia asked worriedly as Steve handed Jack to her.

"He got stung," Steve answered, kneeling down to observe Jack's leg, the raised red edges from where the jellyfish's tentacles had been. "Shhh, shhh, it's ok buddy," Steve soothed Jack as he continued to cry into Alexia's collarbone. There was no denying this was a pretty nasty sting. "I'm gonna go grab the kit from the lifeguard," Steve told Alexia, leaving her with Jack.

"Mommy, it hurts!" Jack continued crying, cuddling against her like that would make the pain go away.

"Oh, I know," Alexia promised, kissing his head and rocking him back and forth. "I know."

* * *

"C'mon Lex," Steve prodded, gently tugging at her wrist. They there sitting in the bleachers at Jack's football game that Saturday morning, the thirteen year old having just gotten sacked. They were sitting up in the front of the bleachers, never missing one of Jack's games. Right now though, Alexia was missing some of the game as she had covered her eyes with her hands to avoid seeing her baby take another hit.

"Just look."

"Nope," Alexia shook her head, her hands still over her eyes. "I'm good just like this." In her mind, both Steve and Jack had teamed up and were trying to kill her through their own bodily harm. Why else would these two spend so much time in the emergency room? Out of all three kids, Jack had the most injuries, including stitches, sprains, and broken bones. And, with Steve's job description, it was no surprise that he, Danny, and Chin ended up in the ER from time to time, though Steve was there the most.

"You'll be upset if you miss his next play," Steve reminded her.

"Dammit," Alexia muttered, uncovering her eyes to watch again. There was her son, number fifty and quarterback just like his dad. After the next play, where Jack ran the ball into the end zone only to be tackled by three other kids, Alexia turned and punched Steve in the arm.

"Ah," he winced, rubbing his shoulder, a bit surprised at the pain. "What was that?"

"That," she pointed out on the field where Jack was slowly getting up. "Is you, all you."

"Why throw when you can run?" Steve grinned at her, earning himself an eye roll. "Easy momma bear. You never used to get this worked up at my games."

"Because you were my boyfriend," she reasoned. "It was cool. And that, out there, is my baby. And that's not cool."

"Aw babe," Steve said taking her hand and kissing it. She was always fussing about Jack the same way he was always losing sleep over the girls. He wondered why it worked like that, him worrying about the girls and her worrying about their boy. Maybe it was because he had been a teenage boy once and knew what it was like just like she knew what it was like to be a teenage girl.

"There's still four years of high school," he pointed out to her gently. "And, the way he plays, probably college."

"Ugh," she groaned, her head falling against his shoulder and he kissed her head. She could almost feel the color leaving her hair.

* * *

_Flashback - age 6_

"Mommy!" Jack said excitedly, running into the house and finding his mother at the kitchen table, reading the paper she had spread out on the surface. "Mommy, look!"

"What is it?" Alexia asked, lifting her head up, though she immediately gasped. Jack's lips and teeth were all stained with blood. "Jack! What happened?!"

"I lost my tooth!" Jack grinned, beaming at her to show that his front tooth was missing. Alexia got up to kneel in front of him, observing his mouth. She hadn't even realized that his tooth had been loose in the first place since she normally caught him wiggling them non stop when they were.

"What were you doing?" she asked cautiously. She had let him go to the park just down the block with a few of his friends from first grade earlier that afternoon. Now that he was a little older and in school with other boys he had started to get in even more trouble. When he was younger, he only ever got hurt in usual childhood accidents, being clumsy. As he got older though, the injuries seemed to stem more from stunts that they attempted.

"We played catch and Justin said I couldn't catch the ball like Max," Jack explained as she wet a paper towel to wipe the blood off his face. "And I said, yes huh and he said nuh uh and then he threw it-"

"Max is the Morrison's dog," Alexia jumped in.

"Yep," Jack nodded, not getting the point. Yes, he had tried to catch the ball in his mouth. No, he didn't succeed, but he was going to get a visit from the tooth fairy tonight which was well worth taking a baseball to the face. Alexia didn't know what to say at the moment, she just blinked at her son, not believing that he had tried to catch a ball in his mouth like their neighbor's puppy.

"Steve!"

* * *

"You were great kid!" Steve encouraged Jack as they picked up outside the school after the game was over, Jack hopping into the back seat of his parents car.

"Thanks dad," Jack smiled, high fiving Steve before he started driving towards home. Alexia knew Jack wanted to be just like his dad, picking his number and taking his position in football. It was definitely in Jack's genes to be as good as he was, not to mention endless backyard practices with his father. She expected that he would be the one to join the Navy, and most likely, become a cop; that was certainly in his genes as well, being a McGarrett.

"What did you think mom?" Jack asked Alexia.

"You were awesome honey," Alexia promised.

"From what you saw," Jack joked, sitting back in his seat. "I saw you covering your eyes."

"Moms are allowed to worry," she reminded him.

"Did mom ever do that at your games?" Jack asked Steve.

"Nah," Steve shook his head, looking at his son in the rear view mirror with a smile. "But, I think she likes you kids more than me." He winked at his wife.

Steve dropped the two of them off at home before heading in to work with a new case. Lucy was visiting USC with Seth and Julia was at the apartment with Grace, looking through bridal magazines since she and Ben had just gotten engaged. Alexia headed upstairs to the bedroom, going back to bed since she had to work the night shift that night at the hospital. She knew that Steve would probably be working late and it made her nervous that Jack was going to be at the house so long by himself. He was a teenager now though and she had to face that he was growing up and he needed to be trusted; the girls were left alone starting when they were teenagers, but they were the same kind of trouble magnets.

* * *

_Flashback - age 9_

Jack thought that this was easily the best plan that he had ever come up with. It was a rainy afternoon, so Steve had to cancel the plans the two of them made to go surfing. Practically scaling the walls, Jack came up with a new plan: mattress surfing. He pulled all the blankets and sheets off of his bed, pushing the mattress out into the hall. The stairs weren't that tall, they were average height, but that didn't matter; this was still going to be awesome.

With Steve in the garage and the girls out of the house, he was free to plan out his new adventure but he knew he had to do it before his mom came home from work since she was always worrying about him. That was when Alexia came home, shutting the front door behind her before starting up the stairs and immediately spotting Jack who was perched at the top on stairs with his mattress.

"No," she shook her head at him right away.

"But mom," Jack complained. "This is gonna be so cool!"

"Still no honey," Alexia laughed a little. "You're going to hurt yourself." Jack pointed at his head.

"I'm wearing a helmet," he showed her. Alexia bit her lip, shaking her head some more.

* * *

"I know mom," Jack complained as she was getting ready to leave for work. He wished she didn't worry so much, she never fussed nearly this much about his sisters. Then again, his sisters weren't the ones who climbed trees or rode their bikes too fast down steep hills. They certainly were no where near close enough to his emergency room record. Right now, Alexia was giving him the rules for that night since she was working till morning and Steve wouldn't be back until late.

"Call-"

"Julia if I need anything," Jack filled in for her. "Dad if it's an emergency. Dinner's in the refrigerator, keep the doors locked. Don't go out after dark." He smiled. "And, if calls for a helmet, wear one."

"Don't get smart with me," Alexia warned, though she laughed. "Have a good night sweetheart." She kissed his cheek. "Call some of your friends, see if they want to come over."

"K," Jack nodded as she grabbed her keys to leave. "Have a good night mom, love you."

"Love you too," Alexia said, heading out of the house now. Jack was immediately bored, not the kind of kid that could just sit still. He wasn't the kind of kid that didn't listen to his parents though, and he promised them that he wouldn't go out that night. With his dad being in Five-0 and his mom working in the ER, he knew they had seen plenty of reasons to be worried about their kids. Instead of going out, he invited two of his friends over, Mike and Trevor. Putting the three of them together though made them even more restless.

"What do you guys wanna do?" Mike asked and the rest of them thought about it.

"You guys want to go swimming out back?" Jack asked and the other boys shrugged, nodding in agreement. They all changed, heading out into the McGarrett's backyard to go swimming.

"Have you ever tried swinging off that?" Trevor asked, pointing at one of the trees that edged the water, vines hanging off it. Jack shook his head. They usually saved surfing and other water sports for the beach. This part of their yard was where Steve taught the kids to swim and, now, was where they relaxed, floating on rafts, sitting in the sand.

"Bet you can't make it out to there," Mike pointed out to the deeper water.

"You're on," Jack laughed, getting out so he could climb the tree.

* * *

Alexia hadn't only been on shift for a few hours, seeing plenty of people coming through since then. There was a kid that needed stitches, a college boy that drank too much, a dad that needed a cast. She was just finishing up with the cast patient, writing him a prescription for pain medication when one of the nurses came into the room, telling her that she was needed. She handed the man his prescription, following the nurse out to the waiting room. When she saw the three boys sitting there with one of the other boys parents, she immediately shook her head.

"Jack!" she sighed, rushing over to where they were sitting to look at him. Just by looking at his arm she could tell that it was broken. "What were you doing?" She didn't wait for an answer before looking at the other mom. "Thanks for bringing them."

"Sure thing," she promised, taking the other boys out to leave Jack alone with his mom.

"We're going to have to get that x-rayed," Alexia went on, having Jack following her down the hall. "Jack, what were you three doing?" She sighed. "I told you to stay in."

"I was at the house!" Jack promised. "We were swimming and Mike bet I couldn't swing out from the big tree by the-"

"Jack!" Alexia scolded. "The water isn't deep enough for that. You could have been seriously hurt."

"I know mom," Jack promised. "I know, I'm sorry." Alexia sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"I know honey," Alexia said, easing up now. "I just worry so much about you." She squeezed his good hand. "Let's get your arm taken care of." She lead him further down the hall to be x-rayed, leaving him with the technician while she went to call Steve. As she pulled her phone from her pocket though, she heard a familiar voice down the hall in one of the other rooms.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" she heard the voice snapping as she got closer, recognizing it as Danny's. When she opened the door, she saw Danny standing off to the side while Steve sat on the bed, having his arm worked on by one of the other doctors, his arm and shirt covered in blood.

"Ah, hey Lex," Steve winced as the other doctor kept working on his arm.

"Got it," the doctor said, pulling the bullet from Steve's arm.

"Oh for the love of God," Alexia sighed, rubbing her forehead. Steve had been in the ER plenty of times with work related injuries, several times from being shot at so it wasn't as if this was something she hadn't seen before. It never made the danger factor of his job any easier to handle though.

"It's not as bad as it looks," Steve told her while the other doctor started stitching him up.

"Are the two of you trying to kill me?" she asked with raised eye brows.

"Two of us?" Danny asked in fake offense. "Look, I _try_ to stop him, but that's your husband who's all shoot first ask questions later."

"If I didn't go in there Danno," Steve started to complain.

"Don't even start with that," Danny started arguing back at the same time.

"Ah, ah, ah," Alexia said, coming over and shaking her head to get them to stop. "No, just stop." She sighed, figuring no one mentioned to Steve why she wasn't the one that had been paged to take care of him. "I have Jack down in x-ray right now." Steve opened his mouth to say something, immediately concerned. "He's going to be fine, looks like his arm is broken though. Once I get him in a cast I'm sending you _both_ home."

"What was he doing?" Steve asked.

"He tried swinging from one of those vines down into the water," she explained and Steve's expression changed.

"My dad never did cut those off," Steve recalled as he thought about it; Alexia shook her head at him.

"You swung off those before, didn't you?" she asked.

"Broken wrist," Steve answered. "Seventh grade." She was still shaking her head at him, though she seemed to think it was slightly funny. It wasn't so funny to her that her son had a broken arm, or that Steve had been shot for that matter, but it was funny that this was just one more way Jack was like his father.

"I'll talk to him," Steve assured her, knowing how she worried; she nodded in agreement, kissing him once before going to leave to get Jack his cast. "Love you."

"Love you too."

**thanks for reading, hope you liked it! i did a chapter on each girl so i knew jack was due to get his own lol next i'm going to start into an actual five-0 case rather than keep writing one chapter per kid. you'll see soon! hope you like it lol let me know what you thought! :)**


	6. Bad Ideas

**thanks so much for the reviews and follow! it means so much to hear from you! :) glad you liked the update. here's starting with the case i mentioned before. hope you like it! (some flashbacks!)**

_Bad Ideas_

"Please!" Lucy was begging her sister. "Please, please, please, please, please, please!"

Julia was home for the evening, spending the night with Lucy while their dad was at work and Alexia took Jack to get his cast taken off. Grace was at her part time job, or she would have come to hang out too. And, much to Julia's dismay though she put on a positive face, Ben had decided to join the SEALs shortly after they had gotten engaged, making her love life nearly a clone of her mother's while he was away at training for now. Right now, Lucy was trying to convince Julia to take her to a new bar that had opened downtown. She had heard that it was easy for people under age to get in, that they weren't super strict in checking IDs.

"You wouldn't even be sneaking in," Lucy continued as Julia tried to ignore her, flipping through a magazine and looking at wedding dresses; Grace had turned first and Julia just recently turned twenty-one. "You and Grace are twenty-one. So, really, the only person that would get in trouble was me."

"Oh yeah," Julia said sarcastically. "Because mom and dad wouldn't kill me if we got caught." She shook her head. "No way."

"Come on," Lucy insisted. "It'll be fun!" She sighed, preparing a guilt trip. "And, besides, by the time I am twenty-one, I'll be in LA and you'll be off married in some place I probably can't pronounce."

"I'll probably be living in the states like mom and dad did," Julia clarified, rolling her eyes at her younger sister. "And the answer is still no way."

"It would make me so happy," Lucy added as their dad came walking in the front door, sifting through the mail.

"What would make you happy?" Steve asked curiously, though he wasn't looking as he continued to sort by the doorway.

"If Julia didn't pick ugly bridesmaid dresses," Lucy lied, quick on her feet. Steve nodded, not too heavily involved in the wedding planning himself, though he was happy for Ben and Julia. When he came across a letter addressed for Lucy with USC in the corner, he stopped.

"Lucy."

"Huh?" she asked, turning her head over to look at her dad and saw what he was holding. "Oh my God," she said, hopping up and snatching it from Steve's hands. Once she had it though, the envelope from her dream school in her hands, she couldn't find it in her to open it. She wanted this more than anything, even more now that her Uncle Seth had taken her to visit USC last month. Ever since she submitted her application, she was slowly going crazy with each passing day as she waited for this letter. Now, she couldn't even open it.

"Aren't you going to open it?" Julia asked. She remembered when she got her letter for college, she nearly took Jack out as she raced to take the letter, nearly tearing it as she ripped the envelope open. What was wrong with Lucy? Eventually, biting her lip, Lucy very slowly started to open the envelope. Then, she stopped.

"Um," she said, looking between her dad and sister. "Could you guys...not watch me?" Julia rolled her eyes at her sister, going back to her bridal magazine. Steve raised his eye brows at her and Lucy gave him a look, so he shrugged, turning his back to her, able to hear her opening the envelope the rest of the way and pulling the letter out. There was silence for a moment.

"AH!" Lucy screamed with delight. "I GOT IN!"

"You did?" Steve asked, smiling as he turned around, Lucy immediately hugging him.

"I got in, I got in, I got in," she repeated, bouncing as she backed away from her dad and handed him the letter. "Daddy, I-"

"I am so proud of you sweetheart," Steve told her, pulling her over to kiss her head as Julia got up now to congratulate her sister.

"Julesy look," Lucy said, taking the letter and handing it to her older sister. "Read it."

"This is awesome Lucy!" Julia said, hugging her sister now. "And," she whispered as they were hugging. "I think this warrants a trip to a certain bar this weekened..."

"AH!" Lucy squealed again, hugging her sister tighter, getting a curious look from her dad. "I'm just so excited!"

"You should be," Steve laughed, the front door opening now.

"Sounds like someone is dying in here," Alexia commented, followed by Jack. "What's going-"

"Mom, look!" Lucy continued to bounce up and down as Julia handed their mom the acceptance letter, Alexia quiet for a moment as she read it over.

"Lucy!" she smiled, hugging her daughter. "Honey, this is great!" Jack then high fived his sister.

* * *

A few days passed and it was then the weekend. Steve and Alexia were going away for the weekend, to celebrate their anniversary of when they got together as teenagers. It had been thirty-two years since that year of junior homecoming. Even though Jack was a teenager now, he was still only thirteen and they didn't want to leave him and Lucy alone for the entire weekend. Alexia joked that they wouldn't have a house to come back to. Instead, they had Jack staying at a friend's house for the weekend while Lucy was going to stay with Julia and Grace at the apartment. Since their parents were away and Lucy was staying with them anyway, Julia and Grace decided that tonight would be a good night to take Lucy out. The more Julia thought about it on the way there though, the more nervous she got.

"Relax," Grace insisted as they parked the car. "Look, this probably one of our better plans." Before getting out, she fluffed her dark brown hair in the car's mirror. "Now, we have a DD."

"Why am I DD again?" Lucy asked, fixing her eye liner where it had smudged. Both girls were wearing black skirts, each in different colored tops. Julia never really liked skirts that much, wearing skinny jeans and a top similar to her sister's.

"Because you shouldn't even be here, let alone drinking," Julia complained from the backseat. She knew that her sister had drank before at house parties and such, that wasn't the issue. But it was already risky business getting her into this bar without adding to the situation by letting her seventeen year old sister drink. "We are going to get so busted."

"You are no fun," Grace told her as they got out of the car.

"I am so," Julia insisted as the three of them walked up to the entrance, arms linked. Grace went in first, handing her ID to the guy at the door. Next was Lucy, Julia holding her breath as she prayed the fake ID she got for her sister worked; it had. Finally, Julia went in last, trying to make herself relax as her sister took her arm again.

"What could go wrong?" Lucy asked with a playful grin.

* * *

"Do you hear that?" Steve asked Alexia as he dropped their bags in the hotel room. They didn't leave Hawaii, they didn't even leave the island for that matter but it made no difference because they got to be alone together. This weekend marked the anniversary of when Steve asked Alexia out the first time, the only anniversary they really celebrated since they never had a big wedding.

"What?" Alexia asked as he came over to where she was standing by the window, wrapping his arms around her.

"Quiet," he grinned at her.

"Oh wow," she laughed as he kissed her once. "I almost forgot what quiet sounded like." He smiled, kissing her again. "I love you."

"I love you too," he said back. "So much." She smiled, standing up on her toes to get another kiss in.

"Let's enjoy the quiet," she smiled at him.

* * *

Lucy was having a great time with Julia and Grace, her sister loosening up a little after her and Grace had a few drinks. Grace was chatting it up with guys that came over to buy her drinks, while Julia politely talked to a few, though her engagement ring was in plain sight. She kept looking over at her sister, making sure none of the guys that tried to talk to her got too out of hand; Steve would surely have an aneurysm at that point. Feeling someone touching her elbow, Lucy turned to see Jessie standing there.

"Ok, this is literally stalking," she told him over the music.

"My brother bar tends here," Jessie pointed over at his brother who caught a glance at them, nodding his head. "Don't flatter yourself Luce." She rolled her eyes. "I heard about USC," he said, not hearing about it from her but through the grapevine at school. "Congrats."

"Thanks," she shrugged, though she knew that he didn't really want her to leave the island, or him.

"I'll do it," Jessie said, practically reading her expression though she gave him a confused look. "California, if that's still on the table."

"Are you serious?" Lucy asked him with raised eye brows.

"If it means being with you Luce," Jessie started to say, but trailed off. "Lucy, come here!" He grabbed her by the arm, yanking her off to the side in the corner to hide behind the side of the bar. Leaving her there, he grabbed Julia and Grace without warning, pulling them over too. Lucy wasn't sure why Jessie was freaking out so badly until she heard it for herself; a gunshot.

* * *

Steve and Alexia were both fast asleep when Steve's phone went off. Still half asleep, Steve thought that he might have been imagining it and ignored it, moving closer to Alexia and holding her closer with his arm over her waist. As his phone sounded off for a second time though, he groaned, turning over to his other side to answer it where it sat on the side table.

"It's like a freakin' time machine," Alexia grumbled sleepily, referring to when his phone always used to go off in the middle of the night. He nudged her as if to say it wasn't funny, though he was less than thrilled that Danny was calling him with a case. He glanced at the alarm clock. Two in the morning?

"Danno," Steve groaned, falling back. "I thought we said no cases this weekend." He rubbed his eyes. "Aren't you picking up Emily's parents from the airport in the morning or something?"

_"Steve,"_ Danny said, his tone serious and Steve immediately picked up that something must be wrong. Of course something was wrong, why else would Danny bother him in the middle of the night like this, on his weekend away?

"What's going on?" Steve asked, sitting up so suddenly, it made Alexia jump. She propped herself up on her elbows, looking at Steve with concerned eyes.

_"The kids are all ok,"_ Danny immediately promised._ "But, um, you're going to want to get to HQ. You and Lex both." _He sighed._ "Now?"_

"Ah, yeah," Steve said, rolling out of bed now and turning on a light. "We'll get back as soon as we can."

"What's going on?" Alexia asked now as Steve pulled a shirt over his head.

"We gotta go," Steve told her quickly.

* * *

Steve and Alexia got back to Honolulu as quick as they could, arriving at HQ at close to three in the morning. Seeing them arrive, Danny left his office to come out and talk to them. When they saw him coming out of the office, they could see through the glass who was sitting in there; Julia, Grace, and Lucy. The three of them sat in a line on the couch, Lucy's head on her sister's shoulder. They looked disheveled, exhausted, their make up smeared from panic.

"Are they all right?" Alexia asked Danny quickly.

"What happened?" Steve asked at the same time.

"They're ok," Danny promised again, resting a hand on Alexia's arm, the mother of three clearly panicked. "They're shaken up, but they're not hurt."

"What happened?" Steve repeated.

"They were at that new place downtown," Danny explained.

"A _bar_?" Steve snapped and Danny nodded. Now that he knew his daughters were ok, he was going to have to kill them. How did Lucy even get in, and what was Julia thinking taking her sister there?

"I guess Jessie's brother-"

"Jessie?" Steve snapped again. If he wasn't so pissed Danny would have pointed out his aneurysm face; he knew the severity of the situation though. Danny was ready to have a talk with Grace about her role in taking someone underage to a bar, but what he faced was nothing compared to his partner's. Both daughters were involved in sneaking in a seventeen year old to a bar. And now, Lucy's boyfriend, or whatever he was, might have been involved in the incident that evening.

"He's the reason they're ok," Danny jumped in quickly. "Got 'em out of the way. His brother is a bartender there..." He trailed off, catching himself with a sigh as he ran a hand through his hair. "Was..." Alexia gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. "I had him give his statement to Chin, but I made him stay. Didn't know if you'd want to..." Steve shook his head.

"Send him home," Steve said. "Kid lost his brother." He sighed, not knowing what he was going to do with his girls at this point, what to say to them as he was still extremely angry with them both. "We'll deal with this in a couple hours," Steve said, since it was almost morning anyway. With everything that had happened, Steve planned on him, Danny, and Chin investigating this case.

* * *

The car ride home felt three times longer than normal, mostly because of the tension. The girls sat in the back seat of the car, completely silent. They knew that they were really in trouble now, even considering what had happened earlier that night. They knew that just making it out of there ok wasn't going to be enough, that they were really going to get it. They were able to tell that from the tense way Steve sat in the front seat of the car, gripping the steering wheel in such a way they wondered it wasn't crushed yet. Alexia kept glancing over at him nervously, knowing that he was about to come unglued, though it wasn't unwarranted. Parking in the driveway, the four of them entered the house quietly, the girls trying to make a break for the stairs to go to their rooms.

"Couch," Steve ordered. The girls both turned and sulked over to the couch, taking a seat as Steve paced in front of them in search for the words, Alexia standing over to the side.

"What the _hell_ were you two thinking?" Steve demanded, neither of the girls looking at him. They had gotten in trouble plenty of times in their life, but had only seen their dad like this maybe once or twice. He usually got mad at them, but was glad they were ok, punished them and taught them a life lesson. It was never this though, with him being this infuriated. They knew they deserved it though, breaking the law and having a dad on Five-0.

The girls didn't answer.

"You two have pulled some serious stunts before," Steve went on, recalling plenty of times the girls had snuck out or he had caught them drinking at parties. "But _this_ easily takes the cake."

"Steve," Alexia said gently, knowing the girls should be in trouble but maybe this wasn't the time to yell at them. She was sure Steve just didn't know how to handle what had happened that night, almost losing his girls like that and it manifested itself in anger.

"No, don't _Steve_ me Lex," he told her, turning to her now. "Not after this." Steve ran a hand through his hair, looking back at his sullen daughters. "Do you girls even understand?" Steve asked them seriously. "The _hell_ your mother and I went through tonight? Worrying about you as we raced back here, a million different scenarios running through our heads?"

"We're sorry," Lucy mumbled.

"You're _sorry_?" Steve asked. "Sorry doesn't change the fact that you broke the law tonight." He looked to Julia. "And you helped her." He could hardly look at them now, both of them sitting on the couch, looking so small and sweet despite what they had done that night. He hated this damn couch, he was going to have to get rid of it. Every time the girls sat on it together like this, they were either in trouble or he had some kind of awful news to tell them.

* * *

_Flashback - 2010_

When Steve came back inside, Alexia had the girls in the living room on the couch. She was looking at him, unsure of where they should even start.

"What's going on?" Julia asked curiously as she sat next to Lucy on the couch. Their eyes were so big and innocent.

"Um, girls," Alexia said gently. "Things are going to start being...a little different around here."

"How?" Lucy asked.

"Well," Steve said, coming to Alexia's aid. "In a couple days, daddy's going to move into grandpa's old house."

"Why?" Lucy asked. "You don't want to live here?" Steve's heart broke.

"You _are_ getting a divorce," Julia accused them.

"Sweetie," Alexia said, trying to calm her.

"What's that?" Lucy asked.

"They're not going to be married anymore!" Julia yelled at her, getting up and stomping towards the steps.

* * *

_Flashback - 2009_

Steve brought the girls downstairs to talk to them as he prepared to leave on another assignment. He had just had a fight with Alexia about how he didn't even know what it was like for them when he wasn't around, what it was like for her to have to talk to their daughters after he left with little explanation. He decided that he was going to talk to them from now on, to try to make things a little better; at least they'd have an answer straight from him, though as they looked at him from the couch with their big, innocent eyes, he felt like the meanest dad in the world for having to work.

"Daddy," Lucy said sweetly. "Whatcha doing?"

"Um," Steve hesitated, looking at both of his little girls, his babies. "Daddy's, ah, gotta go to work for awhile."

"No!" Lucy immediately protested, hopping off the couch and running over to cling to his leg. "Daddy, don't go, don't leave..."

"I'll be back sooner than you think," Steve promised.

"You always say that!" Julia said now, running out of the room. Steve went to follow her, but forgot about the bit of extra weight on his right foot that prevented him from leaving.

* * *

"What do you think your schools are going to do, if either of them find out about this?" Steve continued his rant. "Do you think the U or USC want-"

"Steve!" Alexia stopped him again, warning him with her tone. Now, since Lucy had just gotten into school, it almost seemed mean to throw that in her face, but she knew that was well part of the point. Getting caught doing something like this, if they had gotten arrested, that could ruin a lot of things for them.

"And, worst of all," Steve continued, letting the school thing go after Alexia's snap. "What if you had gotten hurt tonight?"

The girls sank lower in their seats, feeling extremely guilty now though there was no way for them to know what was going to happen to Jessie's brother, Andrew.

"What if," Steve went on, swallowing hard over the lump that formed in his throat as he thought about what really happened that night. Someone had been shot that night, only feet from where his daughters hid. People he knew, Jessie's parents, had lost their son; it could have easily been one of his kids and he felt sick. "Your mother and I," Steve continued. "What if...we lost you?" He wouldn't be able to live with himself, he knew that much.

"Dad," Julia said, getting up from the couch now and going over to hug him; she couldn't take it anymore. Steve hugged her tight, motioning for Lucy to come over too though she wasn't far behind. He squeezed them both close, paying no attention to the silent tears that rolled down his cheeks and into his daughters' hair.

He'd be damned if he let anything happen to them.

**thanks for reading! hope you liked the update :) i know, super intense, but more to come on the case (which i wanted to cross over into home life) more soon! **


	7. Different Kind Of Case

**thanks so much for the reviews, follow, and favorite! it means so much to hear from you! :) glad you liked the update. sorry for the wait, more with the case :) **

_Different Kind of Case_

Steve didn't sleep that night. He spent three hours laying in bed as he watched Alexia make an attempt at sleeping while she continued to toss and turn, but he himself didn't sleep. He thought about his girls down the hall, both of them sleeping in Julia's room. He thought about Jessie and his brother, what the hell they were in to and how it escalated this far.

Finally, unable to lay still any longer, Steve rolled himself out of bed and got dressed for work, going downstairs to make a pot of coffee. Standing at the counter, he felt Alexia''s arms wrapping around his middle and she planted a kiss between his shoulders before resting her head there; he rested his hands on top of hers.

"I didn't sleep either," she admitted and Steve turned to look at her, both of their faces conveying exhaustion. "What are you going to do?"

"Head over to the Scotts'," he answered, going to talk to Jessie and his parents. With what happened the night before, he didn't want to subject them to going down to HQ with him, though he had a lot of unanswered questions for Jessie.

"Can I come?" they heard Lucy asking from the entryway of the kitchen.

"Ah, I don't think right now," Steve told her gently. He knew that she wanted to see Jessie, and he was sure Jessie's parents wouldn't mind since they always adored her, but there was a lot to this case right now, a lot he needed to figure out without his seventeen year old daughter watching over his shoulder. Lucy nodded in understanding.

"Where's your sister?" Alexia asked Lucy.

"On the phone with Ben," Lucy answered as Steve prepared to leave. "Daddy."

"Yeah?" Steve said, turning back to her.

"There's something I have to tell you," Lucy said, knowing her dad was suspicious of Jessie. She had her own questions as well. Why did he know that they had to get down, before the shot happened? "Something Jessie told me last night."

"What?" Steve asked curiously, giving his daughter his full attention.

"It's just," Lucy tried to explain. "I thought it was weird. We had been fighting about California, forever. Then, last night..."

"Yeah?"

"He was just ready to go," Lucy shrugged. "Said we should get out of here together." She sighed as she watched frustration set in on her dad's face, his hand running through his now even grayer hair. "I thought that might be important..."

"It was," Steve promised her, kissing her head before he went to leave again.

* * *

_"Good morning Smalls,"_ Ben grinned as he answered Julia's call that morning. He had no idea what had happened the night before. The high light of his day was when he was able to take those calls from his girl, even if they weren't very long. Ben missed her like crazy, eager to get home and start planning their wedding. Before Julia could answer, she started crying.

_"Wait, Julia,"_ Ben said in confusion._ "Babe, what's wrong?"_ He was getting concerned. _"Are you ok?"_

"I'm ok," she immediately promised, wiping the tears off her face. "I'm not hurt...I just...Ben, something happened last night..."

_"Ok,"_ he said gently. _"What was it?"_

"I took Lucy out with Grace," Julia explained, her voice fast. "To celebrate, her getting into USC and all. But then Jessie..."

_"Is Lucy ok?"_ Ben asked curiously.

"She's fine," Julia told him. "But his brother..." She started crying again, unable to believe what happened, what they witnessed. "He got shot...and..."

_"Oh my God,"_ Ben sighed into the phone. _"Baby..."_

"And now he's dead," Julia continued. "And my dad is hell bent on-"

_"Shhh,"_ Ben tried to soothe her, though he was rubbing his forehead, wishing he was back in Hawaii right now. Only two more weeks._ "It's ok, Julia, I promise. You, Lucy, Grace...you're all safe and that's what matters."_ Julia fell over against her messy bed and into her pillows.

"When did everything get so messed up?"

* * *

Steve pulled up in front of Jessie's parents' house, a little more than a knot in his stomach. He always hated the part of his job when he had to tell someone that they lost their loved one, especially if it was their child. Now, it was even worse because he had to question them and their son in connection to it. Steve had always liked Jessie's family and he knew that they liked Lucy a lot. It was just Jessie he had always been skeptical of, never having met his brother. Now it didn't seem so crazy to be skeptical of a teenager.

"Hey," he heard a voice saying behind him; Danny. "I was wondering when you were going to show up."

"Did you follow me here?" Steve asked his partner and Danny shook his head.

"Been waiting for you," Danny said. "Figured you shouldn't go alone, and I knew this was the first place you come."

"Thanks Danno," Steve said as they walked up to the house.

"Don't thank me just yet," Danny commented as Steve rang the doorbell. "Because I know part of you wants to kill this kid, and I'm not gonna let you."

"I'm not gonna..." He trailed off as the door opened; Jessie's mom. "April, hi."

"Hi Steve," she said, emotionless. She hadn't even lost her son eight hours ago. "Did you need to pick up Jessie?"

"I wasn't going to take him," Steve assured her. It was too soon. "I just wanted to ask him a few things here, if that's all right with you."

"He's in his room," April answered, stepping out of the doorway so he and Danny could enter. They found Jessie in his room, laying on his bed as he stared up at the ceiling; he hadn't slept either. Hearing someone come in, he turned his head to look.

"Mr. M," Jessie said, sitting up quickly. "Um...hey." Steve pulled over the desk chair to sit in, much like he did when he talked to his own kids, Danny behind him. "How's Lucy?"

"She's ok," Steve nodded. "I need to talk to you Jessie, about what happened last night."

"I'm sure the girls already told you," Jessie mumbled.

"I want to hear it from you," Steve told him.

_Want_ wasn't the right word. He _needed_ to hear it from Jessie. Steve needed to understand what happened the previous night, what it was exactly that almost got his daughters killed. He needed to know who this was that his youngest daughter was associated with, what he was involved in and how it could possibly spread to affect his daughter. Anyone that was pissed at Andy was surely pissed at Jessie, putting anyone that he cared about at risk. That obviously included Lucy.

"My brother got shot," Jessie said coldly. "Probably screwin' the wrong guy's girlfriend, I don't know."

"I think you do," Steve said and the teenager looked away.

"Well, I don't," Jessie shook his head. "Look, Mr. M, I loved Andy. He was my older brother. But he was also an idiot." He shook his head again. "I don't know what was going on with him."

"Jessie," Steve said, his tone becoming deathly serious now. "I know that you lost your brother last night, and I'm sympathetic to that. But you're going to want to _stop_ lying to me." Jessie didn't say anything. "How did you know to get the girls out of the way?"

"I saw those guys coming over and they looked pissed," Jessie reasoned. "I thought they were going to start a fight, so I moved the girls-"

"Under the bar?" Steve asked with raised eye brows. If it was a bar fight, why not just vacate the area? Jessie had to have known that Andy was going to get shot. "Jessie, if you're in trouble-"

"I'm not," Jessie stopped him.

"No?" Steve asked and Jessie shook his head again. "You know what doesn't make sense to me?" Jessie didn't answer, but he looked at him.

"Literally, for weeks, I've had to listen to Lucy go on and on about how mad she was at you," Steve shook his head. "Because, you didn't want to go to California, you wanted to stay here, you wanted her to stay here with you." He waited for Jessie to say something but he didn't. "We're talking _weeks_ of this Jessie, so I'm pretty sure you were set on not going. Then, out of no where, you just decide that you want to up and move to California?"

"I love your daughter sir."

"Or were you just running from something?"

"I don't know what Andy was doing," Jessie shook his head.

"Jessie-"

"You should go," Jessie pointed out. "Before you upset my mom." Steve felt Danny patting his shoulder, nodding at him that they should go. Steve got up, following Danny out of the room and, seeing no one else around, right out of the house.

"He knows something Danno," Steve argued as they got to the sidewalk.

"I know," Danny agreed, looking back at the house. "But there's no way you're going to get anything out of that kid right now, not like this."

"Then what do we do?" Steve asked.

"Chin's got their older half brother," Danny explained, re-reading the text from Chin. "Jimmy."

"Did he come in to HQ?" Steve asked.

"Didn't need to," Danny shook his head as they started to split up towards their cars. "Cause he's in jail."

"Fantastic," Steve muttered as he got into his car.

* * *

How did Steve not know all of this about Jessie's family? He always checked into the guys his daughters were dating. Jessie was a trouble maker, but he didn't have any serious crimes to his name, just usual high school stuff, pranks and such. He looked into his parents, not seeing anything wrong with them either. He knew that he had an older brother Andy, but he never knew about Jimmy, probably because of this. He wondered if Lucy knew and kept this under wraps. That wasn't his main concern right now, however, as the officers brought in the young man in his mid twenties into the room, sitting across the table from him and Danny.

"So," Danny said, taking the lead on this one as he knew his partner was nearing physical as well as emotional exhaustion. "Jimmy..." He trailed off to look at the file folder in front of him. "Five years for possession and intent to distribute." He looked him over, easily seeing the relation between him, Jessie, and Andy.

"I thought this was about Andy," Jimmy commented.

"Oh, it is," Danny assured him. "It's just that..." He looked over the file again quickly before shutting it. "Given your colorful history with the law, I thought you might know what it was that your brother was into, help us find who killed him."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jimmy told him, his attitude reflecting Jessie's tone of silence.

"Well, this obviously wasn't a one man operation," Danny started to say. "The one you went down for, even though, you are the only one that got busted." He studied the kid's expression. "I'm wondering if you didn't want to turn in your brothers..." Jimmy looked away. "Or you didn't want to give up the guys you were working for, who I'm guessing are the ones that killed Andy."

"What Andy was into was Andy's business," Jimmy said back.

"And Jessie?" Steve asked now; Jimmy didn't answer. "Because your brother, your _youngest_ brother, is the only one left out there and I'm guessing whatever it was you and Andy were into is going to fall back on him."

"Whatever Andy did was on him."

"And it's on _you_!" Steve snapped, flying out of his seat. "Whatever _it_ is, it got your brother killed last night, it almost killed my daughters. And believe me, if anything happened to them we'd be having a much different conversation. So, whatever you know you're going to tell me right now."

* * *

"Mom," Lucy said from the entry way to the kitchen. Alexia had started on lunch, though she hadn't felt much like eating as the events from last night replayed through her mind. Julia was still upstairs and Jack was home, though he was out in the yard. He had heard what happened the night before, asking his mom a million questions before he saw how much it wore on her to think about it.

"Hi honey," Alexia said, stopping with the sandwiches. "Are you hungry?" Lucy shook her head. "Me either," she admitted, though she knew a normal mom would say that Lucy should eat something.

"Can I talk to you?" Lucy asked.

"Sure," Alexia nodded, standing on the opposite side of the counter from her. "What is it?"

"You don't think Jessie is a bad person," Lucy started out saying. "Do you?"

"I think," Alexia started off slowly. "That it's certainly up for debate right now." She knew that Steve would find out soon enough. "Why do you ask?"

"I just..." Alexia could tell that Lucy was trying not to show that she was upset, that she was on the verge of crying. "Feel kinda stupid now, you know?"

"Lucy," she said gently. "No body knew what kind of trouble he was in." She reached over and took her hand. "It doesn't make you stupid at all."

"I don't know what to do," Lucy told her mom, the tears rimming her eyes and threatening to spill over. Alexia couldn't tell her that she didn't know what to do either.

"Right now," Alexia said. "We wait for you dad to come home and we figure out what to do from there."

**thanks for reading! :) more soon, let me know what you thought! :)**


	8. Catch A Break

**thanks so much for the reviews, follows, and favorite! :) really glad that you all like the story so much. it means so much to me! over a hundred reviews? you guys are great! i'm so sorry for the delay (writing this case is really hard lol) hope you like this! :) **

_Catch A Break_

Steve was in his office, looking over the same case files for hours on end. He looked into Jimmy's case and what he sent to jail for, since talking to him was a dead end. There was no way he was responsible for the entire drug operation on his own, it was more than one person could ever take on. However, he never named anyone in his case, even when he was offered a deal with a lesser sentence. If he had to guess, Andy probably took on the job now because he had to, because Jimmy got arrested and whoever was in charge wasn't happy about it. And now that Andy was gone, that only left one person to take on the role. Jessie.

"Hey," Steve heard a voice saying. He looked up from his desk and spotted Alexia in the doorway, dressed in her scrubs as she was on her way to work.

"Where are the kids?" he asked quickly, his voice concerned.

"School," she answered in confusion; her expression softened. "Baby, it's Monday." Steve glanced at his watch, then groaned.

"Shit," he mumbled, rubbing his eyes. He had spent two days straight at work, losing time all together.

"Have you slept at all?" Alexia asked him curiously; Steve nodded his head over at the couch that had a balled up blanket on it while he continued to look at the case file.

"Just come home for a few hours," she insisted, though she knew it was useless. "Everyone needs a break, the others went home." Steve pointed across the hall, still not looking up.

"Danno's on the couch," Steve informed her and Alexia peered over her shoulder to see into Danny's office, finding that he was indeed under his own blanket on his couch.

"You remember what I said about your blood pressure?" Alexia reminded him. Days like this, Steve wasn't too happy that he married a doctor.

"Well, it's going to be running at a permanent high for now," Steve muttered.

"Are you going to stare at that file until it talks to you?" Alexia asked him.

"Well, what do you want me to do Lex?" Steve snapped at her, though felt immediately bad since she was only worried about him. "I'm sorry," he told her right away. "But Jimmy didn't give anything on who he was working for. Jessie isn't talking to me. Can't ask Andy, and April honestly thought it was just her step-son that was the bad kid, not her sons."

"Jessie's probably not going to come because he's freaked out whoever it is will come after him next," Alexia agreed. "You just have to find another way to talk to him, that doesn't look suspicious."

"Like what, send Lucy as a liaison?" Steve asked sarcastically, flipping a page.

"Or you could arrest him," Alexia said like it was obvious. Steve stopped reading and looked up at her in surprise. Why didn't he think of that?

"_That_, that's why I married you," Steve said as he pushed away from his desk, kissing his wife's head as he rushed by. "Love you!"

"I love you too," she said as he hurried out, waking Danny as he prepared to go pick up Jessie.

* * *

Lucy felt uncomfortable at school that morning, feeling like everyone was looking at her as she walked by. After all, by this point they had all heard about what happened on Friday night. They all knew that Jessie was somehow involved and they knew that her dad was investigating it. Everyone had their opinions. And, while she didn't usually care what people thought about her, the staring was hard to take.

She had to walk by the school's large glass display on her way to her locker, the various team photos and trophies sitting in there through the years of winning championships. There was her dad's picture with the football team when he was quarterback his junior year, the year he got together with her mom. Those were her parents, the perfect high school couple of quarterback and cheerleader; military husband and wife, man of the law and doctor.

Then there was her sister, who graduated from everything easily with honors, about to marry someone in the military as well, basically turning out exactly like her perfect parents. Jack was going to be an amazing football player, he'd probably end up in the military or as a police officer, or something; the way life worked he'd probably marry a model and have tons of perfect, good looking children.

And she dated a guy that almost got her and her sister shot, who was caught up in his brother's drug dealing problems. _What the hell?_

Frustrated, Lucy couldn't seem to open her locker. Each time she put the combination in, it came back wrong and wouldn't open. Finally, in anger and annoyance, she punched her locker, resting her forehead against it as she tried to get her thoughts together. She really should have just taken her mother's offer to stay home that day.

"Hey," Jessie said, leaning his shoulder against the locker next to Lucy's. She turned her head over to look at him, with it still resting on her locker.

"Not right now," Lucy sighed, standing up now, able to open her locker on this try.

"I wanted to see how you were," Jessie started to explain, not having seen her or spoken to her since the incident on Friday. "After this weekend."

"I have to go to trig," Lucy said, pulling out a textbook.

"That's great, but that's your history book," Jessie pointed out. Lucy shoved the book back in, slamming her locker shut.

"I can't do this right now Jessie," she said, turning to walk away.

"I know I owe you an explanation," Jessie tried to tell her.

"An explanation?" Lucy half laughed as she stopped and turned to him. "Jessie, I am so sorry about what happened to Andy. But, whatever you guys were into, almost got me, my sister, and Grace killed this weekend. So, I'm sorry if I'm not exactly ready to talk to you about it."

"Whatever _we_ were into?" Jessie asked with raised eye brows. "So, you think I had something to do with this?"

"You're not leaving anyone with much of an option!" Lucy argued.

Jessie went to argue back, but someone came over the loud speaker, calling him down to the office. He sighed, leaving Lucy in the hall, thinking he was going to have to answer a bunch of questions to the principal or the school psychologist. He had no idea that Lucy's dad was there, ready to arrest him. Since he wasn't giving any answers, he was arrested for obstruction. It was just enough for Steve to take him in and talk to him, without it looking to anyone like Jessie came to him for help.

* * *

"Hey," Steve called Alexia from the office that afternoon. For now, Danny was in talking to Jessie, mostly because he was still afraid that Steve might try to take this kid's head off. "Just calling to see how work's going."

_"Oh, I'm at home now,"_ Alexia said with fake enthusiasm.

"What's wrong?" Steve asked curiously and she sighed.

_"Well, Lucy texted me from school and asked me to come get her,"_ Alexia started to explain. _"Which was fine, I told her she didn't have to go to school today anyway. But, on the way there, I had to stop at the middle school to pick up your son."_

"Uh oh," Steve said, rubbing his forehead. When Jack did something wrong, he was always _Steve's son_.

_"Yeah,"_ Alexia agreed. _"He's been suspended for three days for fighting. It's normally just a day, but apparently it's more because someone's nose got broken and a tooth was busted or something."_

"What?" Steve snapped.

_"Don't ask me,"_ Alexia continued. _"He's fine, but he wouldn't talk to me the entire way home. They're both upstairs in their rooms now."_ She sank into a chair at the kitchen table._ "When did all this happen? One can't go to school because she's too upset, the other one is banned from school for being too violent. Oh, and your other daughter called me from San Diego this morning to tell me she's taking a week and visiting Ben."_

"Remember what you said to me this morning about my blood pressure?" Steve reminded her; he could feel the eye roll.

_"How's work for you?"_ Alexia asked him. _"Because I think I'd trade you Jack for Jessie."_ She lowered her voice. _"I'd love to give him a piece of my mind right now,"_ she said of Jessie.

"Put Jack on the phone," Steve sighed. He could hear Alexia calling upstairs for Jack, saying that his dad was on the phone and needed to talk to him. Soon enough, Jack took the phone from his mom.

_"Dad?"_ Jack asked as he answered.

"What's this I hear about you fighting at school today?" Steve asked seriously.

_"It was stupid dad,"_ Jack mumbled.

"You're right, it was," Steve agreed. "I'm wondering why you did it."

_"It was these dumb guys in my class,"_ Jack tried to explain. _"Robbie and Tyler. They were saying stuff about Lucy, bad stuff, like calling her names."_ He sighed. _"And it made me really mad."_

"Is your mom still around?" Steve asked.

_"No, she went upstairs to check on Lucy,"_ Jack said in confusion.

"You fought two guys?" Steve asked with raised eye brows, trying to hide that he was proud; he didn't want Jack to think that it was ok to just get into fights at school. "And won?"

_"I mean I guess,"_ Jack agreed. _"Robbie's nose is broken and Tyler had to go to the dentist."_

"The _only_ reason you're not grounded right now is because you stood up for your sister," Steve told him. He was going to ask for Alexia again, but Danny came into his office, saying that it was important and that he needed to talk to Jessie now. "I gotta go, tell your mom that I'll talk to her later."

"What?" he asked Danny once he hung up with Jack.

"Jessie wants to talk to you," Danny shrugged. Steve was a bit surprised, but followed Danny out of his office, into the room and sitting on the opposite side of the table from the teen.

"I really need to talk to you Mr. M," Jessie told him, though he was avoiding eye contact.

"All right," Steve nodded patiently; Jessie finally looked at him.

"No one can know that I talked to you," Jessie continued.

"I figured that much," Steve agreed. "Kind of why we arrested you." Jessie nodded.

"What are you going to say when you release me?" Jessie asked. He was concerned enough to ask, so Steve knew that it must be something serious the brothers had gotten into, that they were involved with some dangerous people.

"That we didn't have enough to hold you," Steve answered. "And that, since you're a minor, we can't bring you in again without a parent." Jessie was quiet now. "What is it Jessie?"

"I didn't know," Jessie said right away; then, he re-thought his answer. "I mean...I knew, what Jimmy and Andy were doing. But I didn't know it was that bad."

"Ok," Steve nodded, waiting for Jessie to go on.

"Once Jimmy got arrested," Jessie continued. "I, um..." He was very nervous about telling the next part.

"It's all right Jessie," Steve assured him. "I just want to help, so you're going to have to tell me everything." Jessie nodded, letting out a deep breath.

"I didn't want Andy to go alone," Jessie reasoned.

"Go alone where?" Steve asked.

"To pick up...stuff," Jessie answered ominously; Steve nodded, waiting for more. "I wasn't dealing with him," Jessie added on. "I just...didn't think he should go see those guys by himself."

Steve nodded. He didn't have any brothers of his own, but he was sure there was no clear line on when you should and shouldn't get involved with your brother's business. As an adult and a member of Five-0, it was pretty easy for Steve to see that Jessie shouldn't have anything to do with what Andy and Jimmy were up to. But as a seventeen year old who didn't want his brothers to get hurt, he could see where he was coming from.

"But, now they know who you are?" Steve asked, filling in the blank; Jessie nodded. "And, since Jimmy's in jail and Andy's gone, they expect you to pick it up."

"Kind of, yeah," Jessie admitted. Steve let out a heavy sigh, rubbing his forehead. "I don't know what to do Mr. M."

"You're going to have to trust me," Steve told him. "I'm going to find these guys, I'm going to put them in jail." He observed Jessie for a moment. "But you are going to have to trust me, one hundred percent."

"Ok," Jessie agreed.

"Let me go get Danny and Chin," Steve said, getting up from his seat. "And we'll figure out what to do next."

"All right," Jessie nodded as Steve prepared to leave. "Mr. M."

"Hm?"

"Thanks."

**thanks so much for reading! again, sorry for the delay, but please let me know what you thought! :) and, surprise! i have a new story about this family, posted today if you want to check it out. thanks again as always, you're all amazing! :)**


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